Where we live, we have many little spurts of power outage. That means while working at my desk computer I used to experience multiple cases of "you've got to be kidding" as the computer shut off in the middle of writing something.

Finally, after the outage where I reacted with an almost equal reaction, we got a backup power source designed to keep the computer on long enough to shut it down correctly, or survive those short bursts.

It was very cool. I was excited, no more power failures in the middle of my work for me! I plugged in my computer, the power went out, and my computer went off. At first, I blamed the equipment. However, when I checked I found that I had plugged the computer into the wrong outlet.

You'd think that was it, I had figured it out, but it happened two more times before I finally got the plug into the outlet that was designed to be a battery, and not the outlet that was designed to run equipment as a regular power source. Three times!

The source was there all along, the plug was clearly marked, but I kept plugging it into the wrong one. In addition, I was tempted each time to think that the equipment we bought was faulty, blaming the source and not seeing the error of my ways.

Do you see where I am going with this?

Let's personalize God for a moment and call It a force. That force always exists and we always have access to it, but mostly we go it on our own. Then something happens that gives us impetus to plug into that force.

Maybe is a lack of some kind, or ill health or a relationship that is causing pain that pushes us into finally going to God instead of hoping it would never happen again, like no more power surges.

We do the first step, we get the backup of God in the form of studying spirituality more, or doing more prayer work, or meditation, and yet we still experience the problem. We may think a version of, "Geez, what's up with that, I thought God was all-power, omnipotent Love, and yet It is failing me."

Perhaps we try again, and again, with little or no results.

Joel Goldsmith, in his book, Invisible Supply: Finding the Gifts of the Spirit Within, makes a statement that relates to this. He talks about how he could do great works for others but his family was still struggling financially. Then one day he realized it was because he didn't understand God. He said, "There could be no fault with God or Truth, therefore, the fault must lie with me."

God does not know power surges, let alone lack or ill health or sadness. God is omnipotent Love. There is nothing in omnipotent Love that could know what is not good because God is effectively All Good.

We can waste lots of time defending ourselves. Perhaps the battery should have had clearer writing on it, why aren't all its plugs backup sources, for example. But, at the least, this is an absolute waste of time and energy and at the most, it destroys our daily lives.

Blaming others, blaming ourselves, blaming situations has no point to it and keeps us away from the source by distracting us and focusing on what is not working. Instead, let's get busy and recognize when we make mistakes and simply correct them. No attachment to the personality that wants attention of all kinds, but a pure strong desire to understand God.

That's the battery and the correct plug that we want to plug into. Actually, we have always been plugged into the force called God. Once we begin to let go of our illusions, and beliefs, and personal "I wants," we will begin to experience more and more the constant, consistent, loving power source that supplies all of our being, all of the time.

The result, of course, will be a dissolving of all that isn't true and a revealing of what is, and then there will be no more power surges, just the awareness and experience of a steady, loving, supply of good in every moment.

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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.

We were at the local corn fest, and had arrived just in time to hear the raffle announcer say, "Coleen Springer you have won the bike". It was a cute little bike; I am sure Coleen would have loved it. They kept calling her name, and when she didn't answer, they said they would draw again.

So, Coleen, or a parent, spent the time and money to purchase a raffle ticket, had hopes she would win the bike and yet were not present for the drawing.

Do we do the same? Do we practice, study the science and spirit of God, and yet decide to take time off hoping we won't miss our name being called?

Yes, that's what we do. We get distracted by the out-picture we call our lives, we are misled by the claims that it is more fun to do something else, or the lie that we have studied enough and we will be prepared.

Moments go by, days go by, years go by, and how many times has our name been called without our knowing it? Called for gifts of the heart, called to pick up the supplies we asked for, called to do a good work or deed, called to stop danger, or called to correct the illusion that danger has occurred.

There are other ways we can miss Spirit's calling other than being not present. One way is to ignore it. We do that all the time too. A few weeks ago, I heard my name being called and actually did what was requested for me to do.

You are probably thinking, "Oh my, how glorious, it must have been something very important." No it wasn't. In fact, Spirit's calling is almost always about being faithful to the small details of life, and when we prove that we are present and listening, we hear the message more often, clearer, and yes, sometimes it is something "important" to do.

In this case, it was something very simple. I was jogging down the street in the early dawn and saw a clump of marigolds lying in the road. I realized at once that something or someone had pulled them out of the garden by the road and left them lying there.

I noticed, heard the voice, "Replant them", and kept on going. Heard the voice" Replant them" again and turned around, grabbed the flowers, found the hole they came out of, replanted them, said a few words of encouragement to them, and then continued down the road. It took less than a minute to do this.

It is very doubtful anyone saw me, and the homeowner probably never knew what I had done. Yet, I am the one who benefited. I see those flowers every time I jog by, happily growing as if it never happened. Most of all I benefited because I heard the call and I answered it.

Spirit is calling, "Stop following the lies of the worldview. Don't be afraid; follow my voice. Hold hands with your neighbor and walk this way. Do good without expectation of return. Be diligent, stay in Truth, don't be distracted. The time is now, not later."

The consequences of not being present are far more serious than not receiving the bike that was meant for you. It is a dangerous decision to take time "off" from living the full truth of God at all times, or to ignore the voice of Spirit that is calling you.

On the other hand, the reward is much greater than that bike. Yes, it is work, but there is no other work worth doing. It is the experience of heaven on earth now, it is the awareness of grace in your life now, it is the awakening to your True spiritual nature, the Am in I Am.

Your name is being called, be sure you are prepared and present to hear and act on it.

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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.

The question is - are we participating. First, let's discuss what we mean by God. On the other hand, perhaps we first should start with the opposite economy from God's, the worldview economy, and then come back to what we mean by God.

The worldview economy doesn't just refer to how many people are out of work, or how many businesses are half what they used to be. The worldview economy also consists of earthquakes, floods, fires, and everything we call "natural" disasters, or "global warming".

In this worldview economy, there are those that prosper because they know how to manipulate human emotions, and there those that suffer because they are caught in the web of the worldview game of deceit.

No one can honestly think that the path that we appear to be traveling is a good path, that the results of promoting and accepting greed and fear are good results. No one except those that prosper in this atmosphere, and there is a guaranteed outcome for anyone who insists on remaining in this state of mind because it is a house built on sand that will crumble into nothingness.

But, that doesn't concern us. What concerns us is our own state of mind, and our own point of view. If we are caught in the net, we are suffering. No amount of positive thinking will release us. Yes, it may relax the net's hold for a time, and make net living a little more pleasant, but it is not an escape, it is survival.

The majority of us are in survival. Some, because we don't know there is an escape. Some, because it appears to be just too much work (and it is) and too disrupting (and it is) to actually face the lies and deceits of the worldview and counter it with Truth. Not just for an hour a week, or in a meditative time, but in every thought, every action, every moment.

Now we are ready to discuss God's Economy. I know many people don't like the word God. I understand. The worldview hijacked this name and now uses it to describe a "man in the sky" made in our human likeness. This God does bring destruction, does know about pain and sorrow, does make arbitrary decisions, and does forget us sometimes.

I reject this worldview version of God. I am referring to the God that is omnipresent Love, omniscience intelligent Mind, the omniaction of good, and wisdom and Principle of omniscience.

This God does not exist, touch, or even know about our ridiculous game called "worldview" which is sometimes loving, and often cruel. We know this game must come to an end. We know we have to stop playing it.

Here's the thing. It is only happening within our own perception, our own thinking and once we give that up, God's thinking shines through and the game begins to dissolve.

That's when we all feel the warmth of God's love. Not because God has learned of our plight, but because we have let go of our human will and felt the power and presence of the Truth of the infinite divine Love.

Yes, in the worldview game we are playing at being human. Forget it. It's not working. Time to declare our spiritual true nature, and live as if it is True. It doesn't matter if we don't understand what this means.

How could we at this time. We are operating as little tiny individual minds inside of a little tiny idea. How could we grasp the infinitude that is Reality?

However, we do know that "what we perceive to be reality magnifies", so why continue to magnify the worldview in any form. Instead we must choose to magnify what we understand of God now. Only that. As we practice this in every minute, we will understand more and someday we will "know as we are known."

No, this is not easy. But, really - is life easy right now? One way, the path continues down the same road that gets darker and darker, the other way there is a light at the end of the tunnel that will widen until it becomes all there is, because yes, that is all there is.

Which economy shall we thrive within? Perhaps there was a time we could make a choice to stay in the worldview economy and that would keep us fairly comfortable throughout our human life. Today, that is not true.

We can't stand between two worlds and think we'll be ok. It's a gap that is widening by the day. Choose sides. I choose God's economy, which means I have to stop accepting even those little things that seem so normal, but are really part of the worldview game.

We are trained in the worldview, no not just trained, indoctrinated, and manipulated 99% of the day. Thinking that countering it for just 1% of the day is not going to get us out of this false belief, it is almost not even a Band-Aid anymore.

This choice does not mean all results will be quick, easy, or instantaneous even though can it happen that way - absolutely. Because the truth is that in every moment, our every need is met before we even think we need it.

It's our worldview training that stands in the way of seeing this instant response. As we get better at letting go, we will experience quick, easy, and instantaneous more often, until the only perception we retain is God's.

Today we have to Shift. Shift now, shift later .. why not choose now. Choose what appears as the harder way, it will be the easiest in the end.

True Statement For You To Say:

"God's Economy Is Thriving, Therefore, My Economy Is Thriving."

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.

A little green tomato fell off one of my plants and I put in on my window ledge to ripen. Days later, I noticed it wasn't there. I didn't move it, Del didn't move it, where was it?

I took my rings off and put them on the sink. When I went to look for them later, I couldn't find them. Where were they?

One very early morning I joined Del on our porch to drink our morning brew and the pine trees just on the other side of the rail were just a big haze to me. I couldn't see a single thing.

I was filling the teakettle with cold water. The kettle was hot so it produced steam when the water entered it. Touching the faucet, I quickly pulled back because it felt as if I had burned my hand, even though there was only cold water coming through it.

What do these four incidents have in common? The answer is.... a mist-perception, a misperception, false evidence appearing real.

Looking for the little green tomato I accepted the possibility that something "weird" had happened to it, or even that Del was teasing me and had hidden it. When I stopped both those thoughts and stated instead "nothing in Mind is ever lost", the next time I went to the sink to get something I saw that tomato lying beside the faucet.

Looking for the rings, I had the memory of putting them on the sink. It was a false memory, because when I saw them weeks later - note the weeks later - they were exactly where I had left them. They were neatly placed over the straight handle of the faucet. Then I remembered I had put them there to keep them from rolling away.

Fuzzy images beyond the porch gave me a touch of fright. What if something was wrong with my eyes? Stopping that ridiculous thought I simply waited until my eyes adjusted to the dark and the trees slowly emerged.

As for the teakettle, I laughed as I realized that my senses had pictured back to me what I was thinking, as they always do. The steam gave the illusion of heat, and that is what my sense of touch registered back to me, to make sure that what I experienced was congruent with what I believed.

There is no difference between these stories and the seemingly more important, or frightening ones, of not enough money, unhappy relationships, missed purpose, or ill health.

Looking at numbers that say there isn't enough money in our checking account and accepting it as real, is the same thing as wondering where my little green tomato went. We can think of lots of reasons why it may be true there is not enough, but that will only continue to blind us to the fact that supply, in whatever form it is needed, is present now. "Mind never loses anything!"

Emotions ranging from sadness to anger about relationships because of false memories of what has happened, or is happening, is no different than a false memory of where my rings were placed. All relationships are always between Love and Love. Getting our perceptions in line with that Truth, loving relationships are visible and experienced now.

Not seeing a purpose in our life exists because of the false idea that something is wrong only continues the illusion of fuzziness. Resting safely in the knowledge that everything we do is the purpose of God being Itself, and that we are aware of that purpose (even when we can't see it), then every step we need to take emerges clearly. In fact, instead of just a row of pine trees, there are infinite possibilities always present, and always available, and the perfect possibilities for each moment are always present.

Being careful to continually monitor and be watchful and vigilant about what point of view we accept - and choosing the highest awareness of good, God, that we have in each moment - we will not be taken in by false evidence appearing real.

The faucet was cold, not hot. All that is ever going on is the presence of God. That's it. Any other evidence reported back to us by our senses is a result of our inward agreements to what is real, including the false evidence of ill health.

Unless every thought stems from the awareness of the infinite divine Mind, Love, then we will continue to get false evidence appearing real, which of course produces fear in its many forms.

However, all we have to do is shift our point of view back to One, and keep our state of mind in harmony with Love.

It's important to remember that it is our emotions and reactions to what appears real, that gives it the only power it has. To dissolve the illusion of a problem we must remove the emotion, stop the reactions, and shift our point of view to Truth.

Then what we experience in life will be closer in line with Realty: Love loving, Mind knowing, Principle governing, Spirit grounding, Soul enjoying, Truth revealing, Life living. Shift perception to this, hold to it, protect it, and watch the "world" shift to match that perception.

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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.

For months the sliding screen door has been hard to close, and the curtains hard to move on the rod. Finally, I got out the WD-40 and within minutes everything was moving smoothly and easily again.

Got me to thinking how much time I wasted struggling with the door and the curtains when I could have taken care of it immediately and saved myself the struggle.

Five minutes of "work" time, or struggle every day for a few months.

Too often in every area of our life, we choose the struggle.

I have never thought of The Shift Study Group as oiling a life before, but that is exactly what it does.

Give it a try on yours .. Starts August 2nd so go now to find out more, it's much easier and way more fun than struggling.

This week's Ezine is about the three spiritual laws .. remember them? If they were in a can like WD-40 the directions would say, "Apply Liberally".

Read Acting On Expectations ..

With Love,

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?

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

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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.

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.