The Teacher Of Galilee
The Teacher
He never taught a lesson in a classroom…
He had no tools to work with,
such as blackboards, maps or charts…
He used no subject outlines, kept no records,
gave no grades, and His only text was
ancient and well-worn…
His students were
the poor, the lame, the deaf,
the blind, the outcast—
His method was the same
with all who came to hear and learn…
He opened eyes with faith…
He opened ears with simple truth…
opened hearts with love,
a love born of forgiveness…
A gentle man, a humble man,
He asked and won no honours,
no gold awards of tribute to His expertise or wisdom…
in yet this quiet teacher from the hills of Galilee
has fed the needs, fulfilled the hopes,
and changed the lives of many millions…
For what He taught
Brought Heaven to earth
and revealed God’s heart to mankind.
Verse found years ago on a plaque….
I have long held the essence of this wisdom close to my heart. The simple beauty of a life, this way lived, would be of ineffable worth in our world today.
I Am The Ceo Of Letting Go
Grasping, Clutching, Breathing, Ahhh…
My Journal: the ‘raw unplugged’ … Lakeshore ~ AUG. 26th/09
“If the wind could blow my troubles away
Blow my troubles away…..”
I remember walking another beach years ago pleading, shouting these words into the raging storm flinging my arms skyward in supplication ~
Today – just whacked, wiped, trusting, living in the now ~ affirming ~moment by moment,
Knowing, conscious of, not in denial of all the lessons, challenges that are moving me forward to
creating the new all of which I can alllllmossstttt ~~~~see~~~ on the horizon.
So, I am sitting at a picnic table~
First time hungry today ~ having eaten a Tim’s bagel, broccoli soup ~ watching the wind surfers.
Am feeling stronger more connected to the world around me and am now mostly my calm observer self again. And knowing, I cannot STOP LETTING GO~ ……..letting go of stuff, things, relationships that no longer flow anymore, taking to goodwill store, garage sale-ing, gifting, recycling, repairing, restoring, refurbishing, passing it forward, giving, giving, giving, letttttting goooooooo~
Computer clearing, deleting, reorganizing, recreating, sorting, simplifying on and on and on ~ Cleaning, organizing cupboards, closets, drawers, cubbies, making space for the new~
~energy, ideas, people, love, gifts, abundance and prosperity in my mind, heart and soul, home, work, relationships
I’m the CEO of LETTING GO! Renewing, re-membering, transforming my life.
Letting go of residuals of hurt, sadness, fear, resistance, grudges, denial, confusion, disorganization,
I cant’s, don’ wannas, won’t works, of competition, of ‘better than me’s ~
The list of FEARS ~~~~ False Evidence Appearing as Real is endless~~~
Could build the Great wall of China, block by block if one chose to pile up the blocks of fear inculcated within us by all that surrounds in this world……So many blocks, damn blocks~ invisible~
Invisible ghosts in the mind ~ so powerful~ overpowering~
when we ‘BELIEVE’ THEY ARENT’ THERE…they hold even more of our POWER.
GHOSTBUSTERS~ name of the movie~
Ironically most descriptively powerful when it’s MINDBUSTING that is needed.
I AM THE CEO OF LETTING GO~ Flinging myself into the void of all possibilities….
END OF JOURNAL ENTRY…..
And then the windsurfer walks up to me and begins to tell me his story. “My wife and I came from Newfoundland 20 years ago for job interviews; I am a sail maker.
(I smile as I hear my spirit laughing…..I always know when I am in for another butt kicking into the next shift….all from good intentions, of course~! )
“I had an interview in another city and then came here. The interview went well and then my wife and I went to explore the city. We found this windy bay, full of sailboats and windsurfers and decided this was where we were meant to be. It has never been that windy since! But we have been happy here, taking weeks or months off to windsurf at the best surfing places on the continent when the work is slower. Now we have bought property in a beautiful place up north, by the Great Lakes and building our home on the water. Amazing isn’t it how spirit gets us to where we are to be, I grin and he and his wife laugh with me.
“Then I say to him: It must take a lot of strength to wind surf.
“No he responded. Actually see that young woman over there in the striped top, the one who looks like the wind will blow her over. She is one of the best surfers in the club. She knows how to sense the wind, to bend and move with the waves the motion of the bay.
She moves so beautifully across the water, with no effort.
By now, I am grinning, sassing spirit, inwardly saying…. OKAY ALREADY… You know I ‘know’ this lesson, but obviously you’re taking me through a refresher course.
I AM TO BE LIKE A WINDSURFER~ letting go of ’being strong, TRYING to make it work ~ I am to return to trusting, sensing, moving, flowing, riding the waves of life…..letting go, letting go with arms flung to the sky again,
welcoming the NEW, for the joy of the ride and highest call of my soul.
What might shift, arrive for you, if you should choose to let go~ perhaps of just one thing: the one right there ~ in your awareness?
How might that change your life?
Come join me, surfing along the waters of life~!
Why Doesn’t God Want You To See Him Linda?
When the ‘Creative’ is Everywhere….
“How come God doesn’t want you to see him Linda?” questioned my tiny but very wise friend, 3 year old Ronnie. I stopped painting the trim on the door and looked into his deep brown eyes, wise beyond his years. Eyeball to eyeball he pierced my soul unblinkingly.
“Ummm, well Ronnie, that’s a good question. I’ll have to think about that one for a minute”, I responded.
Looking back now, I know that I most likely missed a wonderful opportunity in my speechless state. Often I would respond to a child’s question with: “Well what do you think” and from that query, have received some amazing insights.
Ronnie, son of my friends, had been in my life since his birth. However after his father died when he was the tender age of 2, he became part of our family day care. I held him close, day after day, as he sobbed from the depths of his being, now also separated from his mother who needed to go back to work. Over time, we became deeply connected, this tiny sage and me, as we shared in common a well of deep inner quietness and contemplation.
From this place, Ronnie had posed an ageless philosophical question, debated across the ages. I am not certain I remember how I finally answered him. I do know that it resonated within me from a similar place of seeking.
Ronnie was the echoing voice, the mirror of my own searching: a construct I could share with few others at that time.
How come God doesn’t want to be seen, Ronnie? From my awareness today, I would now respond to him in this manner.
‘Ronnie, I believe that God /dess, Source, Great Spirit, Creator ( insert your own words for the universal life force energy) from a great sense of humour gave us a most precious gift by not showing us the ‘Divine I Am ’. Seeing God would be too easy and you would miss all the really important stuff like how God sounds and feels and how God talks to you and loves you, always.
And you might be looking in only one direction ~ when God is here and there and in the sunshine and the trees and peoples smiles and splashy rain puddles, the dancing music notes, in puppy dog kisses and fairy forests and rainbows, in laughing dolphins and fuzzy warm blankets and ‘specially inside your beautiful heart.’
And I would say to him today:
‘And it’s important to know too, that ’God’ is with you also in the sad times, and the scary: always there in the dark and the light. The ‘God’ source never changes, it’s only us who may choose to move away from the eternal light and love.
We are also then invited to see the wonder of all the universe, whatever that divine energy is called, through the eyes of our own heart and soul, just like you did then as a small child, since one must be able to see deeply, to pose such an insightful question.’
For the Creator of all is found in all things.
Even in you and me, my precious one~!
Help us Divine All Knowing to see clearly with wonder, like that of a child: to sense deeply your Presence always. Open our hearts to the abundant ‘awe~ someness’ of life that surrounds us, reflecting back to us the reverberating wonder and intrigue of our bounteous world.
What Do You See, when you search for the Creator ?
What do you Sense, Feel, Hear, Intuit?
How does this feed and nurture Your Spirit ?
Warm wishes as you journey ~ Linda
Believing Ones Way Beyond The Fear
I Pulled my Courage up from the Depths of Somewhere…
There are times in life, when suddenly the path ahead is obscured beyond any human understanding. The challenge looming menacingly ahead, may feel like a roaring avalanche about to engulf, when one hadn’t even been aware that they had stepped onto the mountain. Choosing to trust this mysterious force is not a journey for the faint of heart. It is however, the pathway to miracles and breathing space.
The En Visioning Call of My Soul…
Having completed my Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, I then was offered a place in the Faculty of Education to complete my teaching degree. Being in fear through most of my teens, feeling little personal power and lack of support, even censure when I had attempted to embrace life in new ways, I had not ventured into the world to follow my heart’s desire after high school. I truly began to embrace the inner challenge of the ongoing ‘lesson’ of reclaiming my authenticity throughout my marriage. At the earth age of ‘30′ mother of 4 children, sitting in the golden ( really!) chair I will always remember, I clearly heard my Higher Self say to me:
“Linda, you CAN become a teacher!”
Stunned, I began to breathe in the possiblity of reclaiming the dream I had secretly carried, since I was a tiny child. The rest of this is a story for another day……
Now Life was calling me again and and just as imperatively. This time the reverberations awakened my saddened soul and I knew that the only choice for me was to accept the honour of being offered a place at the Faculty, although having no idea ‘how’ any of this could be possible. I had just become the single parent of four children with an already large student loan, part time work as a grocery clerk left me with no idea “How” I was to pay the bills each month. Then I suddenly learned that the children and I were now living in a home that going up for sale, imminently In Yet……
Beckoned from within, in both great fear and mumbling prayer, I blindly began to trust the vision I had seen years earlier. Although I truly felt I was in a check mate position I pulled my courage up from the depth of somewhere I knew not, since this route seemed the only way I would be able to secure a teaching position to be able to care for my family.
I had forgotten that my soul knew the golden path before me.
Arising in the dark each morning, four hours before class was to begin in the city, I would travel, study and return home in the evening. When people asked me how I did this, my reply was always: “Please don’t ask me right now.” It seemed that if I spoke, my suppressed pain and exhaustion would engulf me; I needed every bit of my energy focused on the task ahead. I carried the poem Footprints folded in my wallet and simply kept keeping on.
The inevitable day came when I looked in the refrigerator and there was almost nothing eat. My insides began to cave. Shaking and silently praying, I heard my oldest daughter say: “Its okay mom, it’s been worse”.
I blessed her for her faith. There comes a level of fear that is completely numbing and perhaps this is the gift that allows one to continue moving forward into the unknown when trust is still a fledging. Arising at 5:00 a. m. the next morning, I once again headed to the university, fear pulsing the beat of my heart.
Later that day, researching in the library, the librarian noticed I was strained. I mentioned my situation and that this time I simply didn’t know how I could continue and I had no answers in my awareness, anymore. She smiled and me took down the hall, indicating the Awards Office. Go in there now, she lovingly told me and gently nudged me forward.
On automatic pilot, I entered and began to speak, tears falling as my words dripped out. I will never forget the woman who questioned and listened that day. She gently told me to take the form, to fill it in immediately and return it right away.
Then, because I had ‘believed’ my way beyond my fear and had shared with another ~ since a Miracle is simply a Change in Perception, the key to opening to a miracle began to unfold.
Having reached beyond my old belief system of “ You Have to Do it all Yourself” , three days later I had enough money for food as she handed me the cheque and my eyes once again filled with tears. She soothed my aching soul by acknowledging: “You really need this, don’t you.”
To my surprise, she also passed me another application form, repeating the instructions to complete it immediately. This went on for three months, allowing me to feed my children, to complete my year and graduate with my Bachelor of Education.
I never knew the woman’s name, but to me she was my Angel. This possibly humiliating situation brought healing and hope to me and my family, through her heart felt compassion. Allowing me to keep my dignity, she saw with eyes of love. I truly know that she was one of ways in which Divine Love carried me through that year.
Graduating with honours was merely a bonus. How the rest of the technicalities worked out, I really don’t remember. I do know for sure, however that there truly are angels on earth.
I know she was one of the many Human Angels who believed in me and carried me through that year.
Dear God/dess, thank you for every day miracles. May we remember that when we forget and tremble in fear, You have infinite resources beyond all measures. Thank you for the still small voice within that guides and supports us, through what may seem the most dire of circumstances. For this most precious gift we offer our heartfelt and humble thanks.
Might you be ready to shift one perception; to invite a miracle into your life?
And if so, which one do you choose to shift ?
Many blessings Linda
A Glimpse Of Soul Print Artistry
He discovered…God
in the miraculous beauty
of light, in the harmonious
movement of the planets,
in the intricate arrangement
of muscles and nerves inside
the human body, and in that
inexpressible masterpiece
the human soul.
~ Serge Bramly on Leonardo’s Spirituality
How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci
Grateful thanks Ben, for incredibily gifted photography.
Love Aunt Linda
