I have sought for so many things and yet I have found only despair. So now must I learn to seek only one. For in that can be found all that I need, and only that which I need. I realise now that all that I sought before, I needed not and in truth didn't even want. My only true need I chose not to recognise. Now I see before me that I need only the love of the Universe. For in that all needs are satisfied, all cravings end, all hopes are finally fulfilled and illusions are no more. In that I have everything I could need. In that I have everything I could want. In that, at last, I can find myself at peace. May I wish you a peaceful and love filled 2014 my friend. Happy New Year.

To truly understand is to be aware of all reality through your awareness of your own reality. In this, no illusion can cloud your vision for your reality leaves no room for error. In this way you only see your brother, father or friend as you see him now. The past has no place in the present so you cannot see it. The manner you reacted to them in the past is also not there, and if it is to those past reactions that you respond then the friend that you see before you is but an illusion, an image that you built of them and cherish instead of the truth that is before you in the present. Ask of yourself, is this truly logical to perceive what was as now. If in each encounter you see the past as you look upon your brother, it surely follows that you cannot perceive the reality that is now. When you have understood that to look upon everyone with no reference to the past, either theirs or yours, as you then perceived it, will you be able to learn from and delight in what you see now. The past can cast no shadow to darken the present, unless you are afraid of light. May I wish this weekend for your life to be filled with light, your light my friend.

The Universe is but one creation. Why then would you choose to see in a thousand forms what is but one? Why give a thousand names when one suffices? For the Universe is part of you and you a part of it and in that we are all united eternally in love. We who are one would recognise this day that there can be no separation and we can rest in unity, brother to brother, for in that unity is peace. In nothing else can peace be sought and found. Today may I perceive no differences, for you my friend, are my brother.

How wonderful it is to live your life according to your will, for that is freedom. There is nothing else that ever should be called by freedom’s name. Unless you live by your will you cannot be free. Would you leave your child without that which he would choose for himself? The Universe ensures that you will never lose your will when it gives of the perfect answer. Listen to the quiet word of the Universe that you may be reminded of the combined love of the Universe as you learn your will. Confinement and restriction can never be imposed to make you something that you do not want, for the Universe and all that enjoin in the love of you will join in willing you to be free. To oppose that freedom is to make a choice against yourself. May I wish for you this weekend clarity of vision that you may see your own pathway to real freedom.

The Universe, as part of you, inhabits not your body. And yet it is within you. So it must follow that you also are not within your body, for what is within you cannot be outside. It must also be true that you cannot be apart from what is at the very centre of your life and what gives life to you cannot be housed in death, as no more can you. The Universe within you has as its only purpose that it be made manifest to those who have no understanding of it, of themselves and of all life and its connections. That each may become both the teacher and the taught, as each soul’s journey takes them full circle back to the point of their origin when they can look upon themselves and their life and say “Now I understand!” Then will their bodies melt away and will they see their own specialness within the Universe and all that it and they are. I wish for you to find and enjoy the miracle of the love that the Universe has for you today and every day my friend.

It follows that there can be no “unnatural” powers within any soul and it can only be an appeal to the ego to make up a power that does not exist. It is equally obvious, however that each individual has an infinite number of powers of which he is unaware. As his awareness of the miracle of his life increases, it is entirely likely that he will become aware of powers that hitherto may have seemed startling to him. Nothing that can be done would compare in any small way to the wonderful surprise of remembering exactly who you are. With the realisation that all your efforts have been directed towards this one great final surprise and that your impatience has been directed to all the small surprises you encountered along your pathway that have delayed you. May I wish you a weekend of true miracles my friend.

This very instant is the only time that there can be. We all too often conceive of time in such a way that we defeat this aim. To reach past time and into timelessness we need to change our very perception of what time is for. It cannot be that time is intended to keep the past and the future as one. The only instant in which time can exist is now, without a past or a future. In this instant the Universe can restore our world to timelessness and to Love and Love is ever present, here and now. May I wish for you Love in your life my friend, that you may feel it and know it.

To empathise with another soul does not mean you should join in the suffering; that is what you must refuse to understand! To join in the suffering is merely the ego's interpretation of empathy which it uses to further the sense of dependence upon that which cannot be real. The capacity to truly empathise is borne from the love of the Universe and is best allowed to be used in the ways of the love of the Universe as it dictates. The Universe does not understand suffering and would not have you teach that understanding. The Universe does not relate through your ego to another ego, it does not join in pain. It asks instead that you understand that to heal pain cannot be accomplished by a foolish attempt to enter the pain and thereby lighten it by sharing the delusion. Make no mistake, the ego always empathises to weaken and by weakening is to attack. If you sit quietly by and let the Universe relate through you, you will empathise. I wish for you a lifetime of peace and true understanding my friend.

We spend our lives writing our illusions as truth, bringing a perverse reality to what is but fantasy, we have walked mainly the way of dreams. We were born “awake” and have progressed relentlessly to sleep and then on into yet deeper sleep. Each dreamed experience has led us further into other dreams and every fantasy that seemed to offer us hope by bringing light where once was darkness, has brought us into yet deeper darkness. Your goal became a darkness where not the faintest glimmer of light could manifest; a darkness where you could elude your truth forever. What has been forgotten is that the Universe is energy, it is love, it is light and the Universe cannot destroy itself. That light is in you! You can cover it in darkness but you cannot extinguish it. Your goal is to move from darkness to light, from fear to love. You signed up for this; you signified your willingness to make that transition your goal and yet when light has presented itself you shrink towards the darkness. Let us this week join in an instant of pure love, of the light of the Universe, and see the light that is you. May this week, for you, be one of recognition and of light… your light my friend.

You are part of the Universe and the Universe is you. If you reach deep enough into your memory you are profoundly aware that when you ask for your need, your call is always answered. You are not asked to take this as some unsupported faith; you know this to be true! Whenever you have found yourself standing on the precipice, when your mind is most focused upon your very survival, you cry out for help in the sure and certain knowledge that your cry will be answered. In this moment of panic the stillness of the Universe brings you all, it has since your time began. In those moments your very soul stretches beyond the veil we refer to as our mortal life for help. Help, so freely given, lifts us and carries us over that which impedes our progress to a point where we can forget once more that which brought us there. This connective energy is real and yet time after time we choose to ignore it, confident of our own power to guide our lives. Can you not see just how powerful you are when you connect to the Universe and yet, how powerless you become when you choose to ignore the Universe once more? This weekend my friend, I hope and trust that you will find your way to connect to that which is your true inheritance and use it wisely.

The Universe condemns you not for who or what you are, so no more should you! You are part of the Universe so it should follow that, just as the Universe would know you as part of its Holy self, you must know yourself to be beyond condemnation for your choices and life experiences. For to deny this of yourself, would be to deny all the knowledge of the Universe and instead believe in what is therefore impossible. Would you accept as true what you know to be false or will you accept the love and the knowledge of the Universe which truly knows you? Remember always that you are loved my friend.

Your thoughts are of the energy of the Universe and the energy of the Universe is Love. In number they are infinite and they are everywhere without limit. Only Love can create and it can create only itself. There has never been a time when Love has not been true, nor will there be a time when anything created in love suffers any loss. The Love of the Universe is exactly as it always was and is, and always will be, unchanged throughout time, and after time is done. Love has given all power to all things and will forever do so. Why then, would you give of yourself in any other name? May your world be filled with Love my friend and manifest wherever your heart will wander.

Let all the world be blessed with the peace and the love of the Universe. It is the peace and the love of the Universe that you would give to your brother, to your neighbour, as pure as it was created. You are a child of the Universe and it is through you the love of the Universe flows. Would it not be proper for you to enjoy that peace and love too? Reach inward, in love of yourself, in absolute certainty that what you would give to another is there for you too. Drink the sweet peace and silence that you would give to another and know that that which you would give, is yours to receive in equal measures. May your day be one of inner knowing and universal glowing my friend.

There can be no end to all the joy and peace that awaits you when you are ready to accept the truth of the Universe you already know to be yours. Why would you wait to receive the joy which you know to be yours? Be free of doubt and know your worth, this is all that prevents you from touching the peace and love you know to be yours this day and every day. Why then would you choose to wait another instant to be part of this love, your love? When you can accept this love as yours and that you are deserving of it, you can truly believe you know yourself; and your brother; and the Universe; for you are everything; and everything is yours. Today, my friend, is one of revealment for us both. Take my hand and let us journey and discover, together.

No call to the Universe can be unheard, nor left unanswered. Of this you must be sure. You who can understand what you really are, can remember what you really want. What you give to the Universe must come from the Universe so it follows that what you give to another you give also to yourself. Give with wisdom and give freely. Through the Universe you can remember all that you do not know and you can find it in your own stillness. Forget not that you are nothing within this Universe, but remember that you are All. May your weekend be one plenty my friend.

Holy are you, eternal, free and whole. At peace forever in the Love of the Universe! Where is the world and where is sorrow now my friend?

The Daffodil Principle

I apologise for the length of this piece and I thank Merlin' Diary for sending it to me. It is worth a read if you have five minutes.

The Daffodil Principle

If you don't know this story, then please enjoy it. It seems like an appropriate time of the year to be reminding ourselves of the wisdom it contains.
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead.
"I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there.

When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children.
I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren. "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn!
The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother."
"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!"
I assured her.
"But first we're going to see the daffodils. It's just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "I'll drive.
I'm used to this." "Carolyn," I said sternly,
"Please turn around."
"It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church.
On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read,
" Daffodil Garden ."
We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path.
Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight.
It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different coloured variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.
"Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home."
Carolyn pointed to a well-kept small A-frame house, modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory.
We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster.
"Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking", was the headline.
The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read.
The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain."
The third answer was, "Began in 1958."
For me, that moment was a life-changing experience.
I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, almost fifty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop.
Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived.

One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration.
That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time, often just one baby step at a time and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time.
When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things.
We can change almost anything.
"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn.
"What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years?
Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way.
"Start tomorrow," she said.
She was right.
It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays.
The way to make learning, a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is only to ask,
"How can I put this to use today?"

Use the Daffodil Principle.
Stop waiting..... Until your car or home is paid off Until you get a new car or home Until your kids leave the house Until you go back to school Until you finish school Until you clean the house Until you organize the garage Until you clean off your desk Until you lose 10 lbs. Until you gain 10 lbs. Until you get married Until you get a divorce Until you have kids Until the kids go to school Until you retire Until summer Until spring Until winter Until fall Until you die...

Why would you be afraid to look within, fearful of what you think is in there? Does not the love of The Universe overcome all that we would choose to perceive as flawed? Fear associated with sin the ego would see as entirely appropriate and smiles upon you in approval. The ego is not alone. Its rule is tempered by its unknown enemy, which it cannot see. What it cannot see, it fears. The ego tells you not to look within, it tells you if you do you will see the “sins” for which you must answer to the Universe, to your God, and be struck blind. This you choose to believe! Your faith in a fear that you can neither see nor understand is the true source of fear for you. This presents to those who are willing to "see", a double negative! What if you looked within and saw no negatives? What if you looked within and saw nothing upon which the ego has cast its control? What if you saw only the love over which there is no control, because love “Is”? What if you looked upon the illusion you have created of a life controlled by fear and choose in that instant to awaken from the dream you have been living and see yourself as beyond the control of fear and of the ego? Is this not the moment of your own resurrection? This week my friend, I wish for you a life beyond control by fear of the unknown, instead to be replaced by life filled with the love of the known.

Frantic, loud and strong those without light appear and yet they neither know nor understand their enemy, uniting only in their hatred of something they do not know. If their unity were true then hatred would have no place in their heart for where love is, hatred hath no place and without unity there can be no strength. The army of the powerless would be set aside by the strength of unity. The strength of unity is bound only by the bands of love. May I wish you a week of love and of the joy of unity my friend.

Would you not see that your human misery comes only from the strange belief that you are powerless? Being helpless is the price to be paid to the ego, it's one demand is that you believe in it. Enormity has no appeal except to those who see themselves as small and only those who see themselves as insignificant and powerless see attraction there. No one believes the Universe is powerless so it must be that those who see themselves as powerless see not that they are part of the Universe and replace their oneness with fear and hatred. Fear feeds upon hatred and hatred feeds upon fear yet often the powerless have no understanding of what they hate, understanding only that they hate. Surely there can be no faith in the ego if you can understand that there is no enemy and it is but the ego which makes you powerless? The Universe is one, without compare it can neither be great nor small, only one. You are one with your brother, and with your brother's brother and in that oneness only love can exist. Where there is only love, fear, hatred and the ego have no place. For you my brother I feel only love, and this week may you feel only the oneness of the Universe to the core of your existence.

Atonement is there for us all as it is the easiest way to see past the belief that any experience in this life is for you alone as each experience is shared with your brother. To forgive another is to overlook their perceived transgression. Then look beyond that transgression and do not let it form part of your perception. You will only believe what you perceive as being real. Look only upon what your brother truly is and thereby you may truly come to know yourself. See what he is not and you cannot perceive what you are because you seem him falsely. Remember always that if your reality is based upon a shared experience then your perception of your brother creates your reality too. May I wish you a week of peace and true self love my friend.

We live our lives proclaiming our intentions to bring truth over illusion, reality over fantasy, but in so doing in our efforts to find that truth, have we not reverted from waking to dreaming and on and on into a deeper sleep? Has not each dream we have experienced led to make the darkness deeper. We started our journey in innocence but in that innocence we shared the greatest of truths, love, unencumbered by the fear of experience. No belief or doctrine had yet clouded that truth. There is love and there is fear, fear is the absence of love and as we had yet to experience an absence of love, we knew no fear. We came in search of knowledge, not fear and yet we spend our life using that knowledge to create fear and live the paradox we have striven to avoid. Our world is light and yet we apparently chose to seek darkness in the journey we make. Our true knowledge, our truth, is love, we came with that hard-wired in to our soul, make it our life mission to never lose sight of the truth we came with. I wish for you that 2013 be a year filled with a truthful love for the world we live in.

Look upon all the things that are made for you to hang upon your body, or to cover it or for your body to use. Look at all the useless things which we make for the eyes to observe. Think of all the many things made for the pleasure of the physical and understand that they are largely used to hide or make seem lovely only what you see as inadequate. Would you really use that which you see as inadequate to draw toward you those you love, or would like to understand an unspoken and as yet unexperienced love? Understand that you offer to the world a crown of thorns, not recognising you for what you really are and trying to justify your perception of your own worth by the acceptance of yourself by others. Value yourself not by what you would daily ask the world to believe is you, but by what you would come to know if you would but see past that illusion and see the miracle which is you. Remember my friend, you are beautiful. I wish for you, this week and every week, that you can see that miracle for yourself.