Sunday Celebration Readings
Happy Interdependence Day! 7/04/10
Written by Jim Toole
Today you find yourself celebrating Independence Day. It certainly has historical meaning and yet, there is a great deal more to independence than a document or an event in your country’s past. You would have to look past all of the “meaning” placed upon it for your country’s sake and look into the hearts of the men and women who longed for the opportunity to be able to be who they really were.
Even the “best made plans of mice and men”, “for our country’s sake”, only reflect an outward expression of what really moved within the souls of those who sought to be free. It was for them and is for all, then and today, simply a matter of remembering the pathway “home” to the unconditional essence of the heart. For home, and all of its peace, comfort, shelter and solitude is not found in any particular country, state or dwelling. Home is where the heart is; the sanctuary within which the unlimited spark of Spirit and love live.
“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”. If you think about that line of the song it speaks directly to the truth. If you have nothing left to lose, you have let go of everything. In letting go you find yourself in a state of freedom. It doesn’t say: “freedom is just another word to fight for” or “freedom is just another word for getting everything you want”. Freedom is not a condition or something you can have, it is the experience of surrendering fully into the unconditional nature of being.
As you walk your pathway each shall experience the pendulum swing from codependence to independence in your relationships with each other and the world. As you release your need in codependency and your fear of intimacy in independence, you will find yourself naturally coming to rest in a centered balanced state of interdependence. In fact, for our country’s history and the well-being of everyone in it, today should be Interdependence Day!
In interdependence, we find ourselves in an open state of being that neither seeks to restrict and impose or run away from. It is a place of acceptance, compassion, understanding, honor and respect. It is the state within which nothing is held in place by belief or perception and the world and all that is in it are embraced with unconditional love.
Remember also freedom is not “getting away from it all”. What challenge is its to find freedom in the “wide open spaces”. True freedom is found by having freedom with rather than freedom from. What better place to experience fulfillment than while in the middle of all of the activities and circumstances of your world, experiencing freedom.
You will know it in the instances that it occurs by the joy that it invokes within you. You will know it when it unexpectedly shows up because you have released your expectations. You will know it with your brothers and sisters through your uncontrollable desire to share your unconditional love. You will know it in most profoundly and powerfully when you have fallen into your own divine heart filled with unconditional love and the totality of your experience is if you are in perfect Presence of your Spirit flowing fully through you and in to the world around you.
Go out this day and eat, drink and be merry. For this day and every day is an opportunity to remember the truth of who you are and what you have come to experience here: a balanced, effortless, centered and harmonious experience of Spirit, your Spirit, expressed fully, completely and unencumbered into your life in the world around you. Let the fireworks you experience this day be not only those you see with your physical eyes, but experience emanating from the center of your being as the light and energy of all that is reflecting its magnificence for all the world to see!
The Best of Both Worlds 6/27/10
Written by Jim Toole
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have 1 foot in heaven and 1 foot “here”? To be able to have access to a world without limits right in the middle of the limitations of this world we live in. With so many challenges to face it seems as we evolve, it becomes more and more difficult to bring our faith and our connection to the highest of ourselves into our day-to-day activities and the challenges we face. It seems as if situations that used to be “matter-of-fact” have a great deal more energy, sometimes turbulence and even chaos within them.
This “duality” seems to grow even wider when we feel as if we have to reach even higher or deeper than we have had to before to deal with the same situations that we are working through today. For so many it is vitally important to find a belief system or philosophy that works for them. In the past, faith and devotion has been defined as an unwavering commitment to a particular religion, creed or philosophy. In fact, the focus of many of these belief systems is that to the degree you are committed and “live by” the principles of these ways of life is how well they will work for you. Sometimes individuals are even called to live by blind faith. The words themselves describe a pathway that is narrow and rigid rather than bringing openness and freedom.
Many of these philosophies are fear based and speak of or refer to damnation, sin and hell. This approach is to assist individuals to stay on the straight and narrow. Once again the words are self defining. With this experience of life, your journey or pathway, becomes a thin line that is straight and narrow that you must follow, your life is naturally limited. Keep in mind, without judgment, that these ways of life serve those who serve them. The simple truth is it is not so much what you believe, but that you believe. More and more people are giving up on their faith or have begun searching for a new source for answers.
That being said, how can we bridge or close the gap between the experience of our infinite Spirit and our seemingly finite experience of the world around us. First, we must honor and respect all ways of seeing and being. For even if we were able to walk a mile in someone else’s moccasins we still could not experience ourselves as them.
It is a matter of honoring and respecting our own inner knowing and trusting the guidance of our intuition. By taking the time to “listen” to the essence of our spirit as it moves through us and within us, we will hear what sometimes become whispers amidst the busyness of our days. We can best bring balance between our inspiration and our expression by staying in touch with the guidance that moves through us, being open to its influence and stepping fully into the situations of our lives reflecting it fully.
It is never meant to be an experience of one (our higher self) or the other (our lower self). It is meant to be a dance of our Spirit’s inspiration and energy, directed and influenced by our intentions and desires and expressed by the use of our power and will in love and grace. Heaven (our highest) is brought to Earth (our experience and expression) by our choice to stay in touch with our wholeness even at times seems we are fragmented.
By continuing to surrender into open hearts filled with love, keeping our connection open to the flow of our presence moving through us and creating a channel for it to be expressed through us and as us, we become the center point connection between both worlds. A way to describe working with a way of life rather than working within a way of life is choosing to have flexible faith. By allowing your spiritual experience to ebb and flow, weave and dance, you are an open and clear channel for the influence of your Spirit as your philosophy to express itself naturally.
Finding Your Truth 6/20/10
Written by Jim Toole
It seems as if all your days are filled with an endless search for answers to questions, at times, you don’t even understand. It is as if by finding all the answers life will be fulfilling and you will be satisfied. Although you may find the evidence to prove a point or seemingly resolve a situation, you are only seeing part of the picture.
Keep within your awareness that you are a multifaceted being. Answers will certainly bring to you the evidence that satisfies the reasoning of your mind. The deeper levels of your of emotions and the actual manifestation of your desires are also vehicles that allow for you to get in touch with your truth.
So often you find yourself either in your mind, in your emotions or totally engrossed in the activities of your days. You are meant to experience your truth in all levels, not just one at a time. This requires you to become aware of your totality in each moment by staying in touch with your thoughts, feelings and actions at the same time.
You may say to your self “it is hard enough to keep track of just what I’m thinking, much less what I’m feeling and doing at the same time”. It isn’t as if you must split yourself up to keep track of more than one part of you simultaneously. It is by to continuing to allow your consciousness to expand that you will make enough room within your awareness to truly see what is going on within you and therefore in your life.
This may sound mystical and even etheric in nature. It certainly happens within you and therefore in a non-physical manner. Putting it simply, so to speak, it means paying attention to everything that is going on with you in the moment and being willing not only to admit it to your self, but to accept and embrace all of what is happening within you.
By doing so your Spirit brings its inspiration to your thoughts, feelings, and therefore your actions. In this way you are being guided by your highest, inspired in thought, experiencing your emotions fully and completely present and responsible for your actions. Again, in short, all of you is there for all of you in each moment of everything you’re being and doing.
It is so very important to remember always, that all you seek shall be found in the essence of your Spirit. Although you may search diligently throughout the circumstances, conditions and interactions of your life, you will only find what satisfies your soul in the stillness and silence of your presence.
The encounters of your life are most certainly an opportunity to reflect your true essence into them and therefore back to you in various ways. This adds “flavor” to your experience and therefore to your perception of your truth. It is as if the circumstances of your lives allows all of you to eat soup and yet each of you to “taste” it differently. Seek not to make another’s “recipe” yours. Seek only to add spice to your life by simply being you just as you are.
By staying centered, balanced and in the present moment you will find yourself in the flow of your presence and therefore in connection with your Spirit as it reflects the truth that has always been present within you into your awareness, your world and therefore into the experience of your consciousness. It is by continuing to open up to who you truly are, seeking not to hold on to what comes and goes in your life, simply noticing the reflection of your Spirit, shall you see, discover and most importantly find and remember your truth.
Keeping It Together 6/13/10
Written by Jim Toole
It is the very nature of the world to be filled with a multitude of circumstances and conditions that attract our attention. As we allow ourselves to be drawn into all of what is happening around us we begin to lose track of focus. We begin to extend ourselves in so many directions for so many reasons the very energy we create with becomes scattered and very thin.
Remember it is to the degree that we can focus our attention and therefore our presence into and upon anything that arises before us that we can manifest and express fully. As instruments of creation it is vital that we keep our awareness sharp and focus within the flow of our presence. As we venture from a centered balance connection with ourselves and our Spirit, we diminish our ability to create the world we truly desire.
In our lives so much is going on in so many areas. Each seems as important as the other. We make an attempt to “keep it together”. It is important to keep in mind that in order to bring all of who we are into the situation it is ourselves we must keep together. Staying in touch with the eternal flow of our Spirit, we bring all of who we are into the each situation and therefore our unlimited influence.
It is not about wrestling with the situations and circumstances that show up in our world. It is about staying in touch with our love, light, wisdom and power. By bringing these aspects of who we really are to what we encounter we can have the most profound experience and affect on our life.
As we follow a steady and focused course of inner growth and true connection, we can experience our wholeness and power. Even when circumstances seem to unexpectedly distract us, we can bring our totality to each one of them rather than a part of ourselves to all of them. In this way, all of who we are shows up in each and every instance allowing us to be “all we can be” in every moment of our lives.
Unexpected distractions and difficulties now become unexpected pleasures. This is because anywhere we find all of who we are, we can find fulfillment. Seek not to gather to you and hold tightly to the world around you. Reach within and embrace the true essence that you are. By staying in alignment with the flow of your unlimited and infinite Radiance, the world will be brighter, your pathway more illuminated and your journey more effortless and graceful.
You ARE “all you can be” already. It is truly about being in touch with that rather than scattered throughout the “far reaches” of your world. Find in the moment, within you, the true essence of your beauty, wisdom, love, power and being. By staying in touch with the flow of your light it will shine brightly into your life benefiting you and all who feel its essence touch them. Celebrate the magnificence of who you are by gathering yourself back from all that you are wrapped up in and reflecting that light from within you for all of the world to see.
Friendship 6/6/10
Written by Jim Toole
Kahlil Gibran wrote it The Prophet “your friend is your needs answered”. Focus not on the word need in that quote, for it actually represents the fulfillment without attachment of the very basic desires of your heart and soul. When we reach out to one another withholding judgment, allowing for a connection filled with trust, acceptance and understanding, we have reached beyond separation and found our oneness.
In order for our Spirit to experience itself we must describe or “label” all of the circumstances, interactions and encounters we have. Of all the ways to describe or label this connection, “friend” feels the simplest and most true. It seems to be the term that best describes the opening through which we experienced each other in a pure and powerful way.
Have you noticed in gatherings where you have come together for reasons of celebration, joy or deep compassion, reasoning and whatever you have held within your self against others falls away. You greet or embrace one another with a smile or deep reverence, holding the utmost of respect for your friendship, regardless of what your mind might hold as evidence that keeps you apart. In fact, the excitement and joy of the celebration or the deep emotions in a more solemn situation, opens you up to allow for real intimacy and vulnerability to be expressed.
It is the same when children who have not yet learned to place judgment between them play freely with one another even when they do not know each other. In fact, for a child, their curiosity draws them even more to the child they don’t know rather than being concerned about how they may “see” them. As usual, the children of the world have great lessons for all of us.
When you encounter your friend or any of your brothers and sisters seek only to experience the freedom of who you and they truly are. Allow to fall away the veils you feel must be there in order for you to be safe, understood or right. In your interactions with others choose to extend love, peace and joy. By doing so, no matter the circumstances, there will absolutely be more love, peace and joy between you and therefore in your interaction.
By both releasing the judgment between you and holding within the “space” between you the essence of innocence, acceptance and understanding, you create an opening to extend love, peace and joy into your relationship (the place from which you relate). This may seem like a complicated formula. It is, in fact, a simple description of you just being you, no more, no less.
By choosing to walk each day open to the depths of our heart and reflecting the energy and beauty of our Spirit into the world, we will not only greatly deepen the friendships and relationships we are to have, but create new ones based on unity and oneness. Our interactions between us, no matter what they are called, will become the vehicle we experience and express our Spirit through. It is by being who we truly are in each and every moment and embracing the world, as well as those in it, we fulfill our purpose of being the extension and expression of life itself and All That Is. Greet this day your brothers and sisters with the essence of your spirit and experience peace, love and joy.
Memorial Days 5/30/10
Written by Jim Toole
Countries and cultures create holidays to celebrate or honor individuals, important occasions and in the case of Memorial Day, to honor those who have given what is considered to be the ultimate sacrifice: their life in the service of their country. As we take the time to honor those who have chosen to give of themselves so dearly, let us look more closely at the essence and meaning of this day.
There are many reasons for the urge that moves an individual to play a role in the protection and defense of their country and what it represents. Beginning with the name United States of America, we touch into some of what is woven into the fabric of this holiday.
Unity is a powerful theme that is an integral part of so many ideas and concepts important to our heritage. As the individual states of this country are joined for the common good of all their inhabitants, so are we on a smaller scale of community (common unity). We can carry the essence of this into the energy and experience of family. This brings us to what makes up our families, communities and therefore our country; the individual. It is the urge from within the heart of each of us that desires true and real connection that draws us to share and defend what binds us together: the truth that we are one.
The common thread to consider on this day as we honor those who have “given it all” is their devotion to maintain the opportunity for each of us and all of us to be able to live in the safety and freedom of our connection with one another. It certainly requires discipline and commitment for an individual to serve in the armed forces. In the same manner we each must look within and recognize the driving force that calls us to serve within our daily lives in devotion to the truth of our connection, to one another and to the world around us.
As we honor those who have given their lives for all the right reasons (from within the heart), let us also honor each of us who day after day choose to live in love, peace, truth and with respect for each other and the world around us.
The concepts and ideas this country was founded on are still the threads of truth and hope that run through of all of us who seek to see our country in the world return to a state of not only peace, but of harmony, connection and unity. Let us stand with, not just in honor of, those we remember this day. Let us hold a position side by side in devotion to what really matters, defending and protecting it through love, forgiveness and peace.
Let us show honor to those who have gone before us to give of themselves in the service of their country by honoring not just what they have given their lives for, but the true essence of why they gave it all. Let us give it our all, in service and devotion to being the expression and reflection of unity, oneness and connection in our country and in the world.
By being this light and reflecting it brightly into the world we can return to the knowing of our oneness and connection to one another, ending the need to protect or defend so we may stay open to share the true essence everyday of what is valuable and meaningful in our world today: love, peace and joy.
Heaven and Earth – Here and There 5/23/10
Written by Jim Toole
On your quest for a deeper understanding of yourself and life itself there will be a constant draw to reach above and beyond where and who you are. There are very real and meaningful reasons for this. And these reasons are the purpose for you being here.
You are and have always been the pure and perfect essence of life extending itself from the very center of Source, the Heart of God, from All That Is! You are also no more than the very dust of the Earth. The purpose of your life is to experience everything in between these – the highest and deepest of you.
That being said, why do you reach from what seems to be “down here” to so far “above your heads”. The simple answer to that is a concept spoken about frequently in spiritual circles – you long to be home. Not to the place where you were born or came from. Not to the house or apartment that you live in now. Although you may feel the answer is longing to leave this world and return home to heaven or spirit, it is truly about experiencing the complete and total fulfillment of the essence of that.
In the same way we can find total peace, joy, love, connection, safety and shelter, security and a complete sense of freedom in the solitude and comfort of our home, we seek to find that place of “home” and “heaven” within us. Our experiences of life help us build the foundation, the walls, the roof over our heads, put the windows and doors in the right places, decorate so it feels just right, landscape so that everything around us looks beautiful and so we can BE amongst what we have created and feel complete.
Everything we do and everyone encounter, with individuals or in situations finishes another piece of the puzzle that we put in place. Slowly over time the picture becomes more and more complete, the gaps are filled in, everything begins to make more sense as it all “comes together”. Coming together, within us and with the world around us, takes us back to the whole process of understanding ourselves and life through our journey and guided by our desires and purpose.
Although we struggle with what we believe is not fair, or with the circumstances that don’t feel good or cause us pain, each and every event that unfolds every day has shown up simply allowing us to dig a little deeper for our foundation or reinforce our walls and roof. Not to keep the world out, but to boldly and authentically create our own unique expression of home and ourselves.
We must, “here or there” walk through all the experiences our soul is: the essence of the totality of life expressed. Although we have these references of the world, of Heaven, of even hell, the only important reference or experience is the one we have deep within our own hearts and in relationship to one another and the world. Find gratitude, joy, love, wisdom, yes even pain in all that you are and do. By allowing yourself to enter deeper into all of your experiences of life you will find its true meaning and as they say “you can’t take it with you”. This is because you are IT.
BE IT in all of its magnificence, splendor, wonder and totality. The pure and perfect essence
of life extending itself from the very center of Source, the Heart of God, from All That Is!
Reading Sunday, April 18th
Written by Jim Toole
HONOR AND RELEASE THAT WHICH HAS BEEN FOR THAT WHICH YOU ARE BECOMING
Forsake not that which arises before you on the pathway of your journey. For all that you encounter holds no meaning except for what you have gathered from your experiences and placed upon it. How else can it be? All perception is a gathering of previous experience molded into the shape and form you believe it must be. What else are we but an accumulation of all of our thoughts, words and deeds. This is the evidence your mind would use to keep you imprisoned in your illusion.
Forsake not the circumstances and conditions that arise before you to meet you on your pathway. For you have called them to you to understand more deeply your reflection upon them. They are the canvases upon which you paint the images of your perceptions so they can be seen and experienced by you. And yet perception reflected upon illusion creates only a mirage. Seemingly real and pleasurable and yet fading as it is embraced.
It is not that you must withdraw from all that is around you and that you encounter in order to experience freedom and fulfillment. It is that you seek freedom with rather than freedom from the world around you. Become present and centered in the light and love of your heart speaking clearly to you the truth that is the essence of your being. Experience the world around you not from the place that your mind understands to be true, but from the place your heart knows is real.
Your past and all that you have experienced before this very moment shall either hold you captive or set you free. The decision is yours. By holding true to that which is false and “has been” you shall “recycle” your life forever. By shining the light of your heart and reflecting the love that is your true nature upon the same circumstances they shall speak to you of the wisdom that they hold and allow you to set them free. As you do shall the walls of your prison crumble allowing the beauty of the day to come streaming in.
Become observant. For by choosing to see the world through the eyes of love you will see its innocence and release the judgment you have literally placed upon it. As these veils of judgment are lifted you shall see what has always been there, clothed in your fear and doubt for what it really is. And by being in a place of love you shall experience the beauty of life rather than difficulty and heaviness.
Honor your past like stories told by your elders for it has been the vehicle that has brought you to this moment in time. It is your choice to create what you are becoming, either from fear and perception or from love and light. Both exist within your consciousness. It is by remembering the truth of who you are and coming from that holy and divine place that the transformation of your life shall bring to you the freedom and fulfillment you have always sought.
As always, it is a release from the conditional and not a gathering to of that which you believe shall bring you satisfaction that allows your Spirit to soar. How can we experience the unconditional within the conditions of life itself. It is our purpose to bring the unconditional, the love in light of our heart to the circumstances of our world and set them free and therefore ourselves.
As you continue in this dance of life let it be the song of your heart that inspires you to move unencumbered through the situations and activities of your days (daze). It is by reflecting the essence of your spirit into and through the lights and love of your heart that you illuminate the world around you so that you and your brothers and sisters see the truth, love, joy and freedom that is your true inheritance and destiny.
Reading Sunday, April 11th
Written by Jim Toole
THE DOORWAY TO FREEDOM AND HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS
Be sure of this – it is in the places where you experience your most resistance, where you feel your most fear, doubt and difficulty that the doorway to greater God consciousness exists. Realize the challenging feelings you are experiencing are the very directors brought up (BY YOU) to guide you through them to freedom.
Go and share the truth of your feeling and challenge so that you walk directly through it to the place you truly seek to be. The experience of the feeling holds the key to the release of the barrier between where you are and where you want to be. If you feel your heart constantly calling you – follow your heart. It speaks to you beyond the limits of your challenges.
The world will say keep it to yourself. By doing so you harbor the very anchor that keeps your ship from sailing. Follow only that voice of Truth within yourself. That voice of Truth within you that says to do the very thing that makes your heart sing.
Some would say this is living from your authenticity. I do not speak of what is authentic as being what the mind thinks, that is, its social image. That is not authentic at all. That is a mask, a persona.
That is authentic is what you feel in the depth of your being – in innocence. The innocent heart is not needy. It does not require others to agree with it. It does not wait until the universe nods its head in approval. It merely knows it is innocent and acts from it, and is not attached to the opinions of the world.
Authenticity and integrity is the true pathway by which your True Spirit grows. Any time you look and see that you have not been living authentically, and decide to take a deep breath and tell the truth, first to yourself and then to the world, allowing whatever changes that need to occur to occur, then you are growing as True Spirit.
To live authentically, in some sense, is to live alone. To live alone simply means that you no longer are run by needing to look a certain way, succeed in a certain way, so that the judgment of the world will nod its head and give you a “10″ instead of a “1.”
You were created to create. You were created out of joy and Love. Therefore, live joyously, live loving yourself. Dare to consider that your Self is so important that you have an obligation never to settle for less than your own authenticity. Sometimes that requires beginning the process of discovering what is authentically yours and not what others believe.
Love heals all things. Love transforms all things. Love embraces all things, and thereby, transcends all things. Do not be in a hurry to put aside these ideas. Read them a few times and wherever you find resistance ask yourself:
What changes can I make so that I am truly showing up in a more authentic way?
What changes can I make so that I am following my heart and being who I really am?
You are God expressing. You are free to follow your heart and walk through the gates of hell directly into the gateway of heaven. The power you need to walk through the veils and barriers in your life lies in your hearts purpose. Let it carry you without exception through your challenges into your freedom and the fulfillment of your purpose — being you in Joy, Peace and Love.
Reading Easter Sunday, April 4th
Written by Jim Toole
THE RESURRECTION
Celebrate and accept your resurrection as living Spirit by seeing beyond the boundaries of death, loss, fear, hurt, anger, projection, and perception. You are the one who has been reborn when you choose to remember only loving thoughts.
Accept the resurrection for yourself, and be determined to walk this Earth as one who has arisen. It means that you have chosen to awaken from the uselessness of despair and apparent absence, the uselessness of victimhood, and the uselessness of weakness. You have chosen to accept the empowerment of becoming responsible for this dimension of creation and your experience within it.
For you have tortured and crucified yourself by your own thoughts. On your own journey you have chosen your teachers, who have confronted you with an opportunity a million times to see the truth (your truth), so that you could practice choosing to continue to look out upon the world and see only through the eyes of Love.
These teachers, both the individuals and the circumstances you have summoned to yourself have actually been the keys to the deeper longings and desires of your heart and soul. Imprisoned deep below your reason, your most powerful dreams of purpose and true fulfillment await patiently to be stirred by what literally holds them there – fear, insecurity, doubt, even rage and terror. For as you shed light – your light of life upon them they will reveal themselves to you.
As you choose to look upon the beauty of the gift your deepest desires offer you, rather than what is “wrapped” around them – they will inspire and awaken you to a new level of passion and inspiration. This is the true resurrection. Reviving the seemingly “dead” longings (spirred by our very nature) to be a shining light helping to lead us out of the “dark night of the soul” into a new day.
Place not your Spirit in empty and cold tombs and seal them with the stones of your pain, unanswered prayers, loss or emptiness. Recognize that it is not by avoiding, but walking purely and truly through the “gates of hell” (your deepest fears); you will find not only your truth, but the inspiration, inner knowing and power to fulfill your every true and pure desire. For within your depths, hidden behind the door you have created and locked so well, lies the Presence and Radiance of your Spirit awaiting you heart and soul’s beckoning to bring into the light the Truth of who you are and to express it in Joy, Love and Beauty.
Make a pilgrimage to the heart of your Self by looking upon all that you see this day and seeing its beauty, its harmlessness, and by knowing that you are looking out through the eyes of your arisen Spirit. You are that One who has overcome the world.
What can there be left to do but to celebrate with your brothers and sisters? What can there be left to do but to laugh, to sing, to play, and to remember, in quiet devotion, the Love your Creator has always had for you?
You can choose only between love and fear. In love you are resurrected. In fear you are crucified. The only choice that matters is before you now, as it is always-Love or fear, resurrection or crucifixion, joy or suffering, unlimitedness or smallness. The choice is always yours.
Choose to “rise above it all” and lift your eyes from the world that you think you see and choose:
Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.