We have two bird feeders that we bring in at night because although they are technically critter proof, there is nothing that can stop a raccoon that has all night to skillfully pick out the seeds one at a time.

In the morning, if I forget to put them out as soon as dawn breaks, the birds remind me. Those birds like the nuthatch, chickadee, and finches that prefer the seed feeder, sit patiently on the rod that holds the feeder waiting for me to see them.

Sometimes I look out my window and see them all lined up together like a line outside a diner. Underneath the feeder, waits the squirrels, and cardinals. Patient and persistent, they trust I will be out soon, providing for them.

Once I hang the feeder, a chickadee sings to the waiting crowd in the trees that their expected provision has appeared, and the dining begins.

The other feeder holds suet and hangs on a branch near the deck that comes out from my office. Those birds are louder. In particular the blue jays, especially when they have young to feed. They literally sit outside my office door, on the branch or the deck and yell at me.

Sometimes I try to ignore them, after all, who is in charge here anyway? Obviously not me, because I eventually get up and bring them their suet. I feel like saying "What do you think, money grows on trees," but that would be a ridiculous thing to say, not because the birds don't understand, because they do, but because for them, yes it does!

(A few pictures of blue jays waiting their turn, and deferring to the red-bellied woodpeckers)

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As I retrieved for them yet one more day the thought occurred to me that perhaps they were trying to tell me something more than, "Help I need food to feed these crazy kids".

They are setting an example and asking me if I am following it. So I ask myself, "How much do I expect to receive what I need? How "demanding" am I in asking? How patient, how persistent?"

Each in their own way the raccoon, the birds who like seeds, and the birds who like suet, expect supply. They ask, seek, wait, demand, in their own way. However, all of them take action towards what they need.

They don't worry if they are offending me by squawking outside my door. After all, I am the one who promised to provide.

It seems to me that they fully embrace, as part of their DNA, the spiritual law: "Ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." - Matthew 7:7 Bible

Our human personality gets in the way of fully embracing the fact that this spiritual law applies to us too and not just for other people. Perhaps if we could just find the blue jay squawk, the raccoon skills, and the patient bird qualities within ourselves it would dissolve the belief that we are less than they are, that money doesn't grow on trees, and that we have to be something other than ourselves in order to receive an abundant supply of everything we need.

As I was writing this, the squirrel we helped raise this spring (Junior) started crawling up my office door screen because I was too engrossed in what I was doing this time to hear the quiet sounds he usually makes, and too busy to see his cute face peaking over the door frame. It wasn't hard to understand that he wanted in for his daily treat of cashew nuts. He isn't shy about asking, and I always have a container by the door waiting for him.

By providing for him, even before he asks, I am acting from another spiritual law. "And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer." Isaiah 65: 24 Bible

As long as we marry the worldview into a belief that we are human, we abide by human concepts and laws. We perceive that there are only a few ways to receive supply, in all its forms, which of course blinds us to what has already been provided for us. Don't we know better than this?

We know the outcome if we follow this spiritual law "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto thee." - Matthew 6:33 Bible

This means that we can't say we are human while also agreeing that God - Divine Love, infinite Mind, the Principle, and essence of everything - is omnipresent. Where could the human "us" be present if God is omnipresent?

It's not that we need to acquire this knowledge, we only have to let go of the perception of human, and wake up to the Reality of infinite ever-expanding Love. It's a choice really.

Today, I am making it simple so I am choosing the qualities of blue jay married with the quickness of the hummingbird, the skill of the raccoon, the patience of the finch, the sharing of the chickadee, and the persistence of the squirrel and let them guide my actions.

What are you choosing today?

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok .. here he is ... Junior in for his treat ..

~~~~~~~~~~~

You have permission to reprint The Shift® Ezine as long as it is copied in full without changes and includes the following footer: *Article by Beca Lewis, author of Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception. Visit http://www.theshift.com/ez.html for more ideas to help Shift perception. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

We have trained ourselves to live at a certain level of abundance and not to rise too much higher, or at least do it really, really, slowly, and in the timing and manner of our choice.

This means that although infinite Love is providing ever-expanding abundance for every one of us in every moment, because this is one of Its Principles, we have to find a way to stop it from coming to us.

Well, actually, we have to find a way to not see it so that it doesn't upset our personal paradigm, or story we have written for ourselves, or even worse, allowed someone else to write for us.

Perhaps you are thinking, "Not me, I don't do that, I am open to all provision".

We could honestly say we don't do this if every relationship in our life is filled with love and respect, and I mean every relationship in our life.

If the well from which we pay for life's needs is always full and in fact overflowing.

If our health is excellent with no signs of age or disease in any part of ourselves, and if we are fully living the essence of ourselves in every moment of our lives.

Ok, given that we are all stopping the flow of abundance in our lives in many ways, we can get down to the business of dissolving this habit of stopping the flow.

The first problem, and really the only problem, is we think we are human living in a material universe. If we accept this in any form then our human self is in the constant process of stopping the flow because it does not know how to handle too much abundance at a time.

Let me give you an example. If you run a business (actually we all are in the business of life, so this works for everyone) and you begin to feel that you have enough customers, or clients, and you say to yourself that you really can't handle anymore, that is stopping the flow. Not only will you not receive more customers, but also you will begin to lose the ones you have.

Or, your business is "making you crazy" in some way and you say to yourself, "I have got to get out of this business." Whoops, not a good idea, because being out of business is exactly what you will be.

Or, perhaps you decide to not reach out any longer, or not embrace and learn new ideas to improve what you have; all of this is stopping the flow of abundance to you.

Why is this? Because "what we perceive to be reality magnifies" or said another way, you are programming your personal computer within this "game called earth" to not show you anything that you don't want to see.

This idea applies to every aspect of life, not just to business and money, but also to relationships, love, and health - yes everything.

How can we stop this habit? We first have to begin with the correct premise. We are not human. Never have been, never will be. It's a little story we tell to ourselves to make the world make more sense to us, but that doesn't make it true.

We are the ideas of God. We are the expression of Love, we are abundance Itself. We are the action of Mind. We live in a spiritual universe. There is only one, and it is spiritual.

What if we find ourselves in a job, business, relationships, or any situation that we don't like?

Because we know that everything is in Reality Spiritual, and is in Truth the presence of God, and we know that God is the Principle of omnipresent good we can begin to shift ourselves from these situations, not by saying "that's enough", but by seeing through each one to see the qualities of God.

This means actively finding and rejoicing in every bit of good that is shining through the illusion of "bad," and actively stopping the habit of looking only at what is not working or we don't like. As we do this, the situation will resolve to match our understanding of the Truth of only One, and it is Spiritual, and it is good.

Of course, this barely makes sense to us within our human paradigm. However, accepting it and acting as if it is true will first show us where we have put up dams and barriers in our life, and then begin to dissolve them both by conscious choice and as a by-product of stating the Truth.

Would Love ever give itself more then it could handle? Would it ever put Itself in a business that wasn't joyful and abundant? Doesn't infinite Principle have enough wisdom to give Itself (us) everything in perfect proportion and practical means to take care of what it is providing?

Gratitude will break the habit of saying, "I have enough", or "I don't like this", or "I can't handle that". Gratitude will focus our attention on what is working, and builds up our confidence in the fact that the Divine is handling our lives, really Its life, quite well.

Gratitude for what we have, whether it appears to be a little or a lot, will bring out into the open our human personal stories and rewrite them based on our current highest understanding of God's provision.

Instead of saying "stop, that's enough" to abundance, we will stand with arms open wide in acceptance of the ever-flowing gentle rain of infinite provision, knowing that there is always a place for it and it is always beautiful in its presentation and practical in its application.

You have permission to reprint The Shift® Ezine as long as it is copied in full without changes and includes the following footer: *Article by Beca Lewis, author of Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception. Visit http://www.theshift.com/ez.html for more ideas to help Shift perception. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

In front of our mailbox, we have a stepping-stone that says “Bloom where God plants you.”

I’ve changed.

In the past, I have disliked that saying. It seemed to me that it was giving me a poor choice. What if I didn’t like where I was planted.

Today, I cherish the promise. So what’s different?

Before, when I heard that phrase, I would think that it meant I had to choose to accept a hard life, choose to be less than what I wanted to be. I felt that I could make things better than that, and whoever wrote that saying didn’t understand God.

I was wrong. It was me who didn’t understand God.

Instead of really hearing the message, I was reacting from an independent, “I can do it” human ego, and personality attitude. I wish I could say that it was a fast journey to understanding, but for the most part, it has been a slow progression to the awareness of the true message behind this saying.

It’s simple really, even if we look at it from a “human” standpoint, which most of us do, the idea is we can trust that God would only plant us where we would bloom. Even in the apparent worst of conditions, we could still trust that we can bloom there because we are always provided for, and loved by, Love Itself.

No, I am not saying we will be stuck in those terrible conditions and we must make the most of it. What I am saying is that it is not possible for God to have created any terrible conditions, and when we decide to trust that idea, that Truth, we begin to let go of our human worldviews about what we think we are seeing and see instead the presence of God.

That choosing, that seeing, that blooming, will eliminate those terrible conditions as easily as the light eliminates the darkness.

One thing that keeps us from seeing this Truth and blooming are our mental discussions that more often than not become our outward discussions. It is the messages we give to ourselves and accept about others.

Instead of choosing to bloom - we whine, blame, have regret and guilt and desires for something different in the past, present, or future. We relive the past as if it was the present, and repeat to others and ourselves what we didn’t like, and haven’t forgiven others and ourselves for doing.

The worldview survives by selling us the story that things go wrong, that there isn’t enough, that people are to blame, that we need and need and need some more. It is just like a store, plying us with messages that make us want to come in and buy. It only exists because we keep accepting it and agreeing with it, and stopping in all the time to pick up the latest version of lack, fear, blame, and guilt.

What can we do when we feel as if those who are trying to sell us into the slavery of the worldview surround us on all sides and are stronger than us. We can listen to Elisha who said to his fearful servant, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” (Bible - Kings 6: 17)

We can accept this Truth and it will begin to heal us of our blindness so that we can clearly and permanently see that the way of the worldview is not the way we seek, nor is it the Truth of our being.

We can rise above what appears as a human personality self, become aware of the omnipotence of abundance, and choose to focus only on what is good, true, and pure.

In our modern world, we are all well aware that it is our perception that “creates” reality. However, let’s get this straight. It doesn’t create, or recreate what God has already created.

What it creates is the worldview, which blinds us to the big R reality of omnipotent good already created by the One intelligent Mind we call God.

The truth is, God has planted each of Its ideas, known as us, in the perfect place to fully express all that God is. Let’s shut off the messages trying to sell us a different picture, let’s not buy this story any longer. Once we surrender our human story, the truth of God’s care reveals itself, and our circumstances progressively match our awareness of the consistent care of Love.

If we are not sure how to accomplish this, we can move to the one thing that always breaks open the illusion. It is gratitude. No matter where we find ourselves, we can find gratitude for what we have, and for the awareness that omnipresent Love is ever-present.

Throughout human history we have been told, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” (Bible - John 8: 32) No matter how complicated the human worldview tries to make it, no matter how many lack stories it tells, it remains this simple.

When we know, and live, and speak only the Truth, we are freed from the worldview story, and we will each bloom in all our individual beauty where God has planted us in his perfect love for Its own ideas, known as us.

(Here's some of what is blooming in the yard today ...)

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You have permission to reprint The Shift® Ezine as long as it is copied in full without changes and includes the following footer: *Article by Beca Lewis, author of Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception. Visit http://www.theshift.com/ez.html for more ideas to help Shift perception. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

Since my dad passed away, I have had the privilege of going through all his papers. He saved them all. In fact, if there hadn’t been a mudslide into our parent’s basement one year, ruining multiple boxes, I imagine it would be many years before I would be done.

I am sure he saved most of them because he didn’t know what might be valuable to other people in the future. For some of them he was right, because they will end up in the section of the library at Penn State dedicated to his study of Utopias. Others, he probably just didn’t know what to do with.

One day going through a box, I found seeds. Yes, seeds. Flower seeds carefully labeled and put into envelopes dated Nov. 12, 92, November 5, 97, and December 5, 99. Two dwarf hollyhocks and one calendula.

I wish I knew the story behind these seeds, but I know that next year when I start seeds in the spring I will be planting them.

Seeds are like ideas. Sometimes we put them away and forget where they are, and sometimes it is someone else that finds the idea and plants them for us.

We often forget that we are all gardeners of life. We are constantly planting seeds through our words, thoughts, and actions.

Walking through our life gardens, we will always find seeds that were planted there by someone else. Sometimes those seeds were weeds, and we now have to go through our life garden and root them out.

Others were seeds that remained dormant until the soil of our life was properly prepared for its germination. These seeds have bloomed and blossomed into our thoughts, and therefore our lives, making our life garden more beautiful then we could have imagined. Sometimes seeds have sprouted and we don’t notice them until we stroll down our life garden admiring what has grown.

In my garden, I have planted a variety of flowers and plants, and I am constantly adding more. Each plant brings what only it can bring to the garden. Even if I plant 10 roses, each rose plant, each rose, will be its own unique individuality. Observing this, it is easy to see that beyond what the five senses know, lies the rose’s true substance.

That substance is the idea itself, and that idea originates in the only place it could originate, within the infinite Mind. As hard as it may be to imagine what that means, it is even harder to imagine that it isn’t the truth of all that we experience.

Take away an idea, there is nothing, have an idea; there must be an originator of it. That originator or creator of all is the Master Gardener of each unique expression of life. We are Its ideas; we are each an essence brought to Its garden. Not one is the same, and without all Its ideas, the garden is not complete.

As we accept this truth, and let the Master Gardener care for our life, the seeds we provide for others become more and more valuable and beautiful because they no longer carry any vestige of false ideas, or weeds.

As we let the Master Gardener guide our actions, the pruning, and weeding that we do in our lives is done to reveal the beauty that has already been provided.

My dad planted many seeds, not just for our family, and myself but also for his students, and his colleagues, and his friends. Don’t we all have treasured memories of others who nurtured our lives, composted our garden, pulled out some weeds, watered some wilted plants, and pointed out gifts, or ideas, we didn’t know we had.

It’s important to realize that we are also doing that for others either intentionally, or by simply living our lives. In honor of those who have helped our life gardens to grow, we can all choose to eliminate the seeds of despair, lack, fear, blame, envy, and greed, and instead follow the Master Gardener’s plan, and plant only the seeds of what is good, pure, useful, and beautiful.

PS:
(If you wish to see what is blooming in my garden on Father's Day click here. Read the post called Blooming On Father's Day.  There is also a postscript on the More Squirrel post if you were following his story .. )

You have permission to reprint The Shift® Ezine as long as it is copied in full without changes and includes the following footer: *Article by Beca Lewis, author of Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception. Visit http://www.theshift.com/ez.html for more ideas to help Shift perception. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

Sitting on the back porch, I kept glancing over to my right where I could see a brownish “haze” under the weeping spruce tree. It kept distracting me because I couldn’t figure out what it was.

Forty tons of dirt ..

Thinking that the rain or the early morning light was doing something funny to my vision, I looked, and looked, and wondered why I had never seen either a big brown bush or a lower dead limb on the tree.

I was distracted the entire time I sat there, until I suddenly recalled that we had a forty tons of dirt dumped there the day before that we would be using to even out the ground in that area.

Immediately my focus cleared, and I saw the big pile of dirt, no longer a brown “haze”.

Earlier that morning, looking out our front window I saw a bush I had never seen before. It was dark, but still, this is a garden I work in every day. How could there be a bush there? I knew that the day before what was there was a big blooming clump of chives.

Once I remembered that there were chives there, I saw that it was not a new bush but the clump of chives spread out from the driving rain the night before.

Blooming chives .. looking like a bush..

Two reminders that the mind cannot see what it does not know.

This is good to know, for two reasons. One, if we want to see something, we need to learn how to see what is already there. And, two, if we do see something, we can rest assured that we already possess it because, once again, the mind does not see what it does not know.

How does this apply to everyday life? Let’s take the first idea. If we want to see something, we need to learn how to see what is already there. Yes, I am making the valid assumption that everything is already present, and we just don’t see it because we don’t know it.

This is a valid assumption because it is easily proven. From quantum physics to spiritual awareness, we know that the moment something is known, or thought, it is.

Given this, what do we want to see that we are not seeing? Let’s say we want to see more wealth, in all its forms in our life. “In all its forms” is a key statement because that is the place to start.

How many forms of wealth are there? Is it just that green stuff we exchange and call money, or is it also the leaves on the trees, a neighbor’s kindness, a found treasure, a hug, a gift? Yes, each one of these symbols, and the infinite number of other symbols like this, are all wealth.

Instead of shying away from observing wealth, we must learn to observe it. As we see wealth, acknowledge it, become grateful for what we see, whether it appears as our own wealth or another’s, then the doors of perception begin to open and wealth appears in all its forms and becomes visible and useable to us.

The brown haze transforms to a visible recognition of what is actually present.

The second idea follows the first. If we have seen it, then it follows that we know it, which means that it is ours now. If we hunger, it is because we already know about food. If we desire beauty, it is because we already know beauty. If we long for love, it is because we already have love within.

Once we accept this as a truth, then the need for something no longer frightens us, it encourages us to learn more about what we feel we need. It deepens our commitment to look for, honor, and understand the true substance of what we want.

As we do this, our mind knows what to see and find, or in Truth - reveal. In this perception shift, once again, we discover that what we need is already present, but often not exactly in the package we were looking for, which brings us back to our first idea. We need to know, in order to see.

While I was staining the deck, I sent Del into the garage to get the wood putty to fill in the holes that were in the deck. When he didn’t come back right away, I went to help him. I found the wood putty in just a few seconds. Why did I find it right away, and he didn’t? It’s not what you think. It is because I knew what the container looked like, and he was looking for the kind of container it used to come in.

We looked in the same place, but his mind expected to see the wood putty one way, and mine expected to see it another.

Woodputty hiding in the garage.

Do you see the implications of this? Yes, what “we perceive to be reality magnifies”. Being responsible for expanding our perceptions, beginning with the reality we wish to live within, we take the time to constantly upgrade our perceptions through awareness and gratitude, and as a result, wealth in all its forms becomes visible.

Within this perception there is no need for greed, panic or fear, there is only grateful anticipation for the revelation of the abundance that is already present for everyone equally and consistently.

Our job then becomes one of learning about the substance of Spirit, opening our vision, shifting our point of view perception to one of infinite, intelligent Love, and our state of mind perception to gratitude for Its provision.

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern." William Blake

You have permission to reprint The Shift® Ezine as long as it is copied in full without changes and includes the following footer: *Article by Beca Lewis, author of Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception. Visit http://www.theshift.com/ez.html for more ideas to help Shift perception. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

The story goes that the young man who had left home and wasted his inheritance returned home humbled and grateful. His father celebrated his return without a trace of punishment or rebuke.

His brother was dismayed. He had not left home, but had stayed and served his father well. Why was there no celebration for him?

The answer from his father was simple and profoundly important, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” Luke 15:31

“All that I have is thine.” As I walked one morning, filled with gratitude for the beauty of the day, these words popped into my head.

We often speak of being “one with everything”, and sometimes we even experience the truth of that statement. However, that morning when I added the idea “All that I have is thine” to the concept of Oneness, or omnipresence, a new level of awareness was suddenly present.

Walk with me a moment into this idea, as we marry the statement “All that I have is thine” to the awareness that the quality of life we have is our own perception, and often misperception, of the omnipresence of God, good.

As I walked, I studied more deeply, what I was seeing, It was richly beautiful and at the same time, if I saw it as a material world, it was flawed and limited. In many ways, it was like a giant monopoly game.

In our worldview, that is exactly what we have created. Some of us have many “houses and hotels” while others are still waiting for the dice to roll in their favor. In monopoly, the rich get richer and the winner takes all.

Is this what we want, a game of monopoly to be the model for the way we live? The brother who left home and squandered his inheritance was playing a game of chance. The brother, who stayed home, was playing too. He was holding on to what he felt he owned.

The father understood the omnipresence of God. He viewed what he was seeing with a spiritual perception. Instead of playing the worldview game of lack, limitation, and ownership, he lived in the awareness that all is good, God.

We can shift our perception away from this worldview into the spiritual perception of the consistently abundant Reality of One God. We can begin to understand ourselves as the compound idea, the full representation, the action, and expression of this One God - not material, but spiritual.

When we accept the statement that “All that I have is thine”, then there is no need to hoard, or grab, or fight, or worry, or even win. There is nothing to do, but let go of the false perception of the worldview.

The sunlight melts away the fog, dissolves the mist, revealing what has always been present. With each increase of awareness of the omnipresent and omnipotent good of God, our misperceptions melt away, revealing more and more of the grandeur and beauty of the infinite.

“All that I have is thine” is yours and mine to acknowledge and live as Truth. As we pay our bills, raise our families, build our businesses, plant our gardens, or cook our dinners let’s shift our perception of it all to a spiritual awareness that it is all God in action.

Not a giant monopoly game, but an infinite expansion of Love, and all of it is ours. Take possession of this idea, and let it dissolve away ever bit of lack and limitation in every aspect of every life.

“Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine” is a true statement. Not to be lived in a future time and place, but it is here and now for each of us, because yes, we are all One in Truth.
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“Men who are devoid of the power of spiritual perception are unable to recognize anything that cannot be seen externally.” Paracelsus

"What a glorious day it is, filled to overflowing with abundance directly given to you, expect it, ask for it, give thanks for it, and accept it!" Beca

You have permission to reprint The Shift® Ezine as long as it is copied in full without changes and includes the following footer: *Article by Beca Lewis, author of Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception. Visit http://www.theshift.com/ez.html for more ideas to help Shift perception. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

I heard their honking first. Widening my vision, I saw three geese, one leading, and two walking together, honking as they waddled over the rise to their little pond. One saw me and slowed down to watch me as I jogged/walked by.

We kept glancing back at each other, kindred spirits in the celebration of the dawning of a new day.

It had rained all day the day before and into the morning. With the dawn, the rain stopped and the geese and I were witnesses to a morning filled with the scent of lilacs, and the movement of the sunlight through and around glistening branches and flowers.

It was a glorious morning overflowing with countless trillions of living things moving, singing, sliding, and expanding. It appeared as if every plant had grown overnight, nourished by a day of rain.

As the goose and I exchanged glances, it turned into one of those moments when it is impossible to not be aware that there is an infinite, loving Principle behind it all.

I was just beginning to “run” again after stopping for the winter. I was trying a new technique of running and walking while breathing only through my nose, harder to do then it sounds, but is supposed to make running easier after getting used to it.

I had also tried a second new technique of running toe heel, but had given up the idea of doing two new things, finding it much too difficult to break two habits at once.

In fact, I have realized that I find it hard to do more than a few things at once well. However, once again, during that glorious morning I remembered that the Infinite does all things, all at once, all the time, with perfect precision and outcome.

I know that when I surrender to the acceptance that I am the expression of this infinite Principle, I always have the experience of being cared for as part of the One infinite whole. Of course, this perfect caring is always happening, but experiencing it and intellectually knowing it are two different things.

It’s not the big events in our lives that prove this infinite care to us, it is the small, every day events. For example, over the weekend, I couldn’t remember an item that I was supposed to get at the grocery store. Instead of worrying about it, I affirmed to myself that the infinite Mind surely has never forgotten anything.

In just a few moments, as I walked up an aisle, I was gently reminded what it was that I needed. Later that day, I was gently reminded by that same “still small voice within” to mail a letter, and make a phone call.

Trusting that this infinite Principle is in charge, we could all let go more. We could stop trying to multi-task and instead witness the master multi-tasker at work caring for every detail of every life in every moment.

When we forget that the infinite Principle of Love is always on the job, we could simply step outside and notice what is going on in nature without us doing anything at all. Perhaps we have watered the trees, planted a rose, or trimmed the lilac, but we cannot ever actually make anything happen.

No amount of human will power is going to give the tree, the rose, and the lilac life, watch over their every moment, or care for their every new sprout.

Yes, human will power can make some things happen within the material world. However, what good is this other than expanding our human ego and misperception that we are material and the world is material.

How happy are we when we multi-task, taking on more and more responsibility, trying to prove our human worth? Eventually we need to leave this mistaken view of ourselves as human, and experience ourselves as one of the ideas of the Principle of Love, always tenderly cared for and loved.

In those glorious moments when this is perfectly clear, we know without doubt that infinite Intelligence is the substance of what we have misperceived as material.

Once that idea takes root within our consciousness it becomes clear that everything that exists, that we see, taste, touch, smell and feel is in Reality spiritual, or the idea of God. Then we know ourselves as the action of God, and follow direction rather than powering forward in a series of multi-tasks trying to make things happen.

Del and I sit on our new porch before dawn every morning. The birds start their morning chorus long before dawn arrives, usually with a single mockingbird call followed a few minutes later by the robins and cardinals. By the time the sky begins to lighten, there is a full chorus of birds in the trees, grass, bushes, and plants.

This morning choreography is just one more example of the master multi-tasker’s constant and precise care of every detail of life. We cannot begin to imagine the complexity of each moment, but we can imagine the possibilities for ourselves if we stopped trying to be the cause and creator and surrendered instead to the steady care of the one cause and creator, the One infinite intelligence of the Principle of Love, multi-tasking with precision because that is Its nature.

Here is a perfect annotate to personal multi-tasking:

“And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

This cumulates in the statement of one the three Spiritual Laws: 33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Mat: 6 - 28 /33

You have permission to reprint The Shift® Ezine as long as it is copied in full without changes and includes the following footer: *Article by Beca Lewis, author of Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception. Visit http://www.theshift.com/ez.html for more ideas to help Shift perception. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

When I was ten my parents purchased their first home. As soon as we settled in, my dad planted a little garden. Every summer night he would come home from work, change into his shorts and he and I would tour that little garden together.

Now that we have purchased a home, my love for gardening has bloomed again. We have begun the process of adding plants to our yard that attract butterflies so that when we saw our first spring butterfly dance across the lawn, it was a happy moment.

The key here is the word “attracting”.

We can’t make butterflies do anything. We can’t round them up and usher them into our yard hoping they will stay, we have to build an environment that attracts them and then supports and sustains them so that they will remain.

This is a multi-dimensional idea. If we don’t want something, then we shouldn’t build an environment that attracts it. In fact, the more we build an environment that suits who we are, it becomes less likely that what we don’t want in the form of events, people, or things will be attracted to it, or stay in it since there won’t be anything there to support and sustain them or it.

How does this relate to spiritual perception?

In planting our garden, I appear to be doing the work of attracting, but I am not. What is attracting are the qualities of the plants in the garden. If I was doing the work of attracting, I might sit and think using my mind or will power to convince the butterflies to come and stay in my garden. Instead, I am trusting in the natural order of nature to do what it does, by simply being.

My job is to care for the plants, not to attempt to force butterflies into our yard.

Taking this symbol to a larger arena, it is not our job to attract what we need, from companionship to money. That is the one creator’s quality, and works without our needing to step in and try to manipulate people and situations using a material counterfeit attraction.

Since there are many proponents of this counterfeit attraction, we can be fooled; it is highly marketed, appears to be easy, and for a time we may be good at it. However, this counterfeit attraction exists within the material realm, and is not the practice of spiritual perception.

When we use our own mental mind force or will power to make something come to us we are playing a dangerous game. When we give power to our human mind, then we have given it the power for both good and evil. In addition, we have opened the door for others to play that game with and at us. When we give matter power for good, in the dualist place this exists; it also has power for bad.

It is not only dangerous, it is a small, limited, cramped, and tiny playing field compared to the Divine’s attraction of unlimited possibilities.

Material attraction is always hard at work in its attempt to lure us into its limited and false front environment. This attraction to finite and material means and ends, although temporarily pleasant, always leads to a dead-end.

Butterflies leave environments that do not support them. We can also leave environments that don’t support us, which is always the environment of the counterfeit material attraction.

Spiritual attraction is the open door to experiencing the infinite and our relationship to it.

What is our “job” in this spiritual garden of Life? To tend and care for the life found within it, beginning with our own, and from there broaden our outreach, our garden, filling it with the qualities of intelligent Love.

Within our home garden, we pause to marvel at the beauty of the tiniest element to the largest tree. In the garden of the Divine, we can pause often to marvel at the infinite attention to every detail of life, attracting only expanding good for every living thing.

Stop working at counterfeit attraction, and look with spiritual perception at the only attraction that is really going on. Expect that everything you need has already been provided for you, expect that only good is coming your way because that is the only attraction there is.

There is only one cause and creator, only one attractor, only one power, only one infinite holding all of Its creation within Its unlimited loving care.

As spiritual beings, we are the qualities that attract, just as the plants are the qualities that attract butterflies. All we have to do is acknowledge, possess, and live as those qualities, and leave the rest up to the Principle of attraction in action.

“Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities — always see them, for they’re always there.” Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

(Do you love attracting butterflies too? Info on Monarch Butterflies and their migration.)

You have permission to reprint The Shift® Ezine as long as it is copied in full without changes and includes the following footer: *Article by Beca Lewis, author of Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception. Visit http://www.theshift.com/ez.html for more ideas to help Shift perception. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

“Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive… then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman

This is one of those quotes that sounds lovely, we may agree with, but then have to step back and ask, “And how do I come alive”?

One way to come alive is to serve others; not as a servant, but as the obvious outcome of being our authentic selves, and this in turn makes us feel more and more alive.

However, which comes first? Other than the newborn who is absolutely itself, and then begins to forget, this may be a chicken and egg question. For the sake of a place to start on this circle, let’s begin with the idea of serving others as our authentic selves as a way to come alive, or more correctly stated: experience aliveness.

To explain what I mean by serving as our “authentic selves” let me give you a few examples.

Take the color blue. It is absolutely itself. It doesn’t have to work at being blue, it just is. When we use it, it serves us. It doesn’t have to work at serving us either, it does so because it is being what it is, the color blue.

On the other hand, suppose the color blue forgot that it was blue, and instead tried to serve as the color yellow. This takes work on its part, and if we were painting a picture, expecting to use the color blue for the sky, and instead got yellow, it would not serve us at all.

I planted bleeding hearts in my garden. I anticipate the day they grow and bloom lighting up the garden bed with their beauty. They will serve everyone that passes by being exactly what they are.

In fact, flowers are a perfect example of serving by being themselves, and at the same time meeting their own needs. Flowers are designed to entice specific insects or birds to visit in order propagate, and in turn, it serves by feeding the insect or bird.

Of course, serving as ourselves means we also have to be aware of who we are so that we can choose where we grow best, which keeps that circle rolling of being ourselves, serving others as ourselves, and experiencing more aliveness.

The arborvitae trees that we had planted last year were tilted. As I lifted one to straighten it, my foot sunk deep into mud surrounding it. With all the snow and rain we had this year, the ground it was planted in was beyond soaked.

Arborvitae trees do not like to be standing in water, so no wonder they were tilted and sad looking. The solution is to lift them up, put better drainage under them, and replant higher with a trench around then to absorb the water better, and if that doesn’t work plant them somewhere else entirely.

On the other hand, the willow trees and bushes I planted last year are in the middle of a puddle of water and they are happily getting ready to bloom.

Both the arborvitae trees and the willows are serving others by being themselves, but one is having an easier time of it.

It is interesting to note that the only way a plant can end up in a place they don’t grow well, is if we plant them there. When they plant themselves through natural means, it is only within an environment that supports their growth.

Understanding the concept that we serve others, but only from our authentic self can sometimes be confusing. This is probably because, unlike my trees, we have so many choices, and we are able to wear so many masks, that we often forget which one is our authentic self.

Trying to be yellow when we are blue, or trying to be a willow when we are an arborvitae is uncomfortable, not productive, and inconsistent with our heart desires. It leads to slightly unhappy or deeply unhappy lives, surely not what is intended for us nor does it result in “coming alive.”

Being our authentic selves can be hard to do when we feel as if we are in survival mode of any kind, like not enough money, time, love, happiness, patience etc. All of these states of mind can have us withholding ourselves from others and not feeling alive.

“To be nobody but myself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.” e.e. cummings

e.e. cummings was correct, it is a hard battle as a human, and the worldview training is to suppress the authentic self.

It is much easier to “be nobody but ourselves” when we step away from human beliefs and the worldview training and into a spiritual perception of the world and ourselves.

One way to practice this is to observe the qualities that you represent. If you only see negative ones, reverse them and reveal the true essence of yourself. Pause often to experience how by being your authentic self you are serving others.

Notice that you don’t have to work at it, it simply is. Like the color blue, the arborvitae trees, the willows, and the bleeding hearts, each one of us serves others as the by-product of being ourselves. In this way, we are supply itself.

As we practice spiritual perception, we will discover that we already are Life living itself, as each individual unique expression of the divine Life is doing. We exist in one lovely expanding circle of serving each other and ourselves by being ourselves. Come alive, the world is waiting.

The sun shone through the window for the first time in what seemed like months. What it revealed was startling. What before had appeared as a clean window, dusted furniture, and swept floors was a very dirty window, dust where I hadn’t noticed it before, and a not so clean floor.

Suddenly the term “spring cleaning” made sense. It is not just the feeling of starting fresh and new after the winter, but the actual awareness that cleaning needs to be done.

Light does that. It reveals.

What happens next is up to us. Either we can let the dirt remain, or we can clean it up.

Here’s where the many choices, or free will, comes into play. It is the choices of what we want to perceive or think about what is revealed, and what we choose to do about it.

If we choose to leave the dirt alone, we can either pretend that it’s not there, or acknowledge that it is present and either punish ourselves for not doing anything about it, or for the fact that it exists at all (we should have known better), or acknowledge that it exists, but it isn’t our problem, or even enjoy the fact we are leaving a mess.

If we choose to clean up the dirt we can either be grateful for the revelation that something exists we don’t want in our lives, or berate ourselves for not seeing it sooner, or be mad because we have to clean it up.

So many choices for cleaning up dirt and each choice we make determines the quality of our day, and eventually our lives.

I am sure you have already applied the symbolism of all this to a much more important issue then the dirt in the living room.

As we each practice spiritual perception, becoming increasingly aware that we are the light of God, that light – like the sun – shines on the “dirt’ in our lives, revealing what before was unseen.

Spring-cleaning our house is the same thing as spring-cleaning the house that is our consciousness.

We have the exact same choices around cleaning the ideas, past events, thoughts, and behaviors that we discover when we shine our light on our lives as we do cleaning the dirt revealed by sunshine.

Whichever choice we make absolutely determines the quality of our lives, the joy of the day, and either brings more light, or rolls in more mist that hides the light.

We are never the dirt that is revealed by the light. No matter how aggressive the temptation is to believe the loud voice that says we are, we can always rest assured that any “dirt” that the light has revealed is a lie about ourselves.

That dirt, or lie, has been there, clouding up our perceptions and once it is revealed, it can be dissolved and washed away.

Instead of dismay, let’s celebrate that the dirt has been uncovered, and bring out our tools to clean our homes and clean our perceptions.

To clean our homes we get dust clothes and cleaners. To clean our perceptions we remind ourselves of our Point Of View and hold steadfast to it.

Choosing the Point Of View that all is Love Loving Itself is the same as knowing that once we clean up the dirt in our house, what remains has always been there, just hidden by the dirt.

As we sweep away false perceptions, we bring our State of Mind into harmony with our Point of View. We have many tools we can choose to do this, from meditation, music, affirmations, 360-degree Soft Vision, walking, sitting quietly in nature, working in the garden - there are endless ways to silence the “monkey voice” and return to an awareness of the innate perfection of all that we see.

The voice within us gently guides us forward, holding us safely in Its Love while we clean.

Listening only to this voice we will find the courage and wisdom to sweep away any lie about ourselves, and to acknowledge ourselves as we are, the Light of the Divine. We remember that we are not the window through which light passes, but the light Itself.

We might even find ourselves “whistling while we work”. In the end, we will feel the delight of a clean home, and the deep joy and peace of a cleaned consciousness.

You have permission to reprint The Shift® Ezine as long as it is copied in full without changes and includes the following footer: *Article by Beca Lewis, author of Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception. Visit http://www.theshift.com/ez.html for more ideas to help Shift perception. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.