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 ...)

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
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.

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.

Sometimes loved ones appear to leave us by choice, either ours or theirs; or they leave when it is time for them to leave.

They either leave to a place in this state of being called earth where it is possible to see them again, or they make a transition to a state of being where seeing them physically is now not possible.

Choice or time, physical or not, all forms of leaving have a few things in common and one Truth that underlies it all; although loved ones may leave Love does not, which means we are never alone, or abandoned, or lost, or unloved.

Our emotions may tell us otherwise. Besides missing them we often experience regrets. We think “I could have done more,” or we ask, “What did I do wrong?” These thoughts can be helpful, but only if we treat them as a learning experience and not as guilt producers.

Facing what we could have done better or differently is the same as becoming skilled at anything by observing what we have done and practicing doing it even better the next time. If an athlete stays in the pain and guilt of not doing well longer than necessary to correct the action, then the cycle of not doing well continues.

This is true in all the walks of our life. We are becoming skilled at living and loving, and as we learn from what we do and move towards a higher understanding of perfecting that skill we don’t allow guilt to reside within us. Instead we practice expanding our life more profoundly into love.

By applying wettable sulfur to the moss and the grass on our hill I was providing an environment where moss could thrive, and the grass and weeds would not. This same idea can be applied to our relationships.

When we provide the environment that we wish to live in, then others will find comfort there or they won’t. This doesn’t make one good, or one bad. Although the relationship may make a transition to a different form, Love remains and we will experience that higher Love if we don’t allow regret or guilt or fear or anger to take control within our thinking.

In 1 Corinthians 13 we read that charity never fails. What is this charity, or Love, that Paul is talking about? It can’t be human love because it does often fail. It must be the omnipotent Love that is ever present.

As we choose to practice a higher awareness of omnipresent Love and become more skilled at letting go of the small worldview of how things are and to yielding to the Divine’s direction, we are providing an environment for others to also experience the Love that never fails.

Those that are traveling that same road as us at this time may walk with us. Those that are traveling a different road at this time may not. But, Love has never left us or them.

The other, seemingly more permanent, form of leaving is the transition we call death. This can feel harder to deal with because we know we won’t bump into our loved ones somewhere in our life, and we can’t call them on the phone, visit them in person, or even send them an email.

And yet, we know there is no death. We know this because we know that the infinite intelligence that we know as the Divine or God is Life Itself. We know this Life to be omnipresent and omniscient. We know that there is no beginning and no ending.

Sometimes this is easy to forget because we are so used to celebrating the seeming beginning of life known as birth and mourning the seeming ending called death. But, neither is real. Both are a marking of time born within a perception that we have adopted as our own, but is not the Truth of Life.

Sometimes we are witnesses to that passage between the awareness of the life that we live in now, and a new awareness of life that those who are making a transition experience. This is always evidence for us that Life continues and Love remains, and we can rejoice and find comfort and peace in that awareness.

At the end of that same verse in Corinthians Paul says, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

As we experience more of “knowing as we are known” we will experience less of the sense of loss at what only appears as a leaving and more of the joy of knowing that there is no loss, nor leaving, there is only omnipresent Love Loving Itself seen as Life.

Core values, family history, worldview agreements, and personal habits all entwine together to present a picture we call our life. Our lives are like a movie that goes on and on because we go on about it.

We stand in the middle of this movie, like characters on the screen, and try to change it or simply live well within it, using of course our core values, family history, worldview agreements, and personal habits to do so.

If these ideas all come together to form a pretty picture then life is good, when they don’t then life is not so good. When the worldview script of lack and discouragement appears as everyone in the movie suffering, then getting out of the movie called our life can seem impossible.

Standing in the middle of this life, or picture or movie, and trying to change it for the better or even survive will only have a temporary impact, because of one very key fact. The movie and the movie viewer are one.

This is not a whimsical idea. This is fact. From the book Biocentrism: “Moreover, if one accepts that the external world occurs only in Mind, in consciousness, and that it’s the interior of one’s brain that’s cognized “out there” at this moment, then of course everything is connected with everything else.” (Robert Lanza MD with Bob Berman)

This means it is absolutely possible to change our lives because our lives are the out-picturing of (but not the creation of ) what we believe and perceive to be true. It also means that there is only one way to both permanently make a change and that is to shift our perception from within.

But what if we want more than just a better life? What if we want to be what we really are, what if we want to experience ourselves as the outcome or idea of the infinite Mind, or omnipotent Light? What then?

To do this we must re-think reality and re-set our perception altogether. We must stop identifying ourselves as human, stop believing what the five senses tell us and listen instead to the quiet voice within; stop acting as if the movie and script are real, stop wanting the story to get better, and want instead to let go and live as the idea of God.

This is a radical thought and decision. It demands a root change. It demands that we reset our perception, or follow the biblical word “repent” which means turn around and walk the other way; turn away from the movie playing in our heads which results in what we call our lives.

Turn away from identifying ourselves as human and re-set our thinking and perception. It demands that we let go of how we want it to be, think it is, and then follow through with action and commitment to Truth.

This radical shift demands that we turn away from trying to fix things and people; turn away from our story and turn instead to the fact that what exists in our lives is and who we think we are is one and the same.

This is not a half way decision, it is a complete shift. Yes, it may appear to take time to reset habits and beliefs, but that too is only set within our agreement of what is true.

It may appear that others need to change first. Again, not true. What appears as they, or that, is really our own perception. There is no way to separate the thinker from what it is thinking.

Our responsibility then is not to create, control, or to make happen. Our responsibility is to stop separating ourselves from the ever present infinite intelligent flow or force we call God; it is to let go and be what we are, which in turn re-sets what we experience as our lives.

As we do this we should expect more beauty, peace, abundance, grace, happiness, love and all the other fruits of good to be more present in and as our lives.

Not because we worked at becoming good and wise humans, but because we gave up the story and returned home by turning within and consistently listening and following the still small voice, by paying attention to the symbols that prove the presence of God, and continually re-setting our perceptions to match our current, highest and best understanding of the Divine.

###

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.

Have you ever said to yourself, or had it said to you, or said to another, “Just snap out of it.” This statement supposes that we have the ability, knowledge, and desire at that moment to do so, and this is often not the case.

So this little article is dedicated to all of us for those times when “snapping out if it” sounds good, but feels impossible.

Of course we all know that the first step in “snapping out if it” is wanting to. When we are deep in joylessness or discouragement or despair or doubt the desire to leave this state of mind may have also abandoned us.

The Question Then Is: “How Do We Become Willing?”

Here are two quick ways to get over the “why bother feeling” and begin to be willing to “snap out of it” and be happy again.

1. Pause and remember a time you were happy. To remember might take some deep recalling and imagination.

Compare it to how you feel now. Really feel the difference. Where you more comfortable physically and mentally when you were happy?

Keep feeling the difference until you catch that glimmer of “willingness” and hold on to feeling. Think of it as a tiny flame you have to keep alive.

2. Do it for someone else. In everyone’s life there is someone else, or a cause, that we love enough to choose to do something for them, if not for ourselves. Albert Einstein said, “Only a life lived for others is worth living.” Be willing to snap out of it so you can “do” for someone or something else.

OK, I’m Willing Now What - What’s There To Be Happy About?

This next step is easier than discouragement would want us to believe. It’s the step of gratitude. Everyone knows that being grateful is the perfect “snap out of it remedy” but exactly how is that done?

Have you ever told yourself to be grateful and heard the answer, “No I don’t want to.”Of course you have! Why would discouragement want you to leave it?

We are going to be grateful in spite of it! Why? Repeat steps one and two again if necessary and focus on that willingness flame. We are going to get it to burn brighter by blowing gratitude on it; but how, and for what?

Most of the time when we have fallen into a “funk” it is not just one thing that has taken us there. Usually it is that one little extra thing that happens and our internal self finally says, “I can’t deal with it!”

Uncovering all that has taken us down might take forever, and often keeps us there as we ruminate over it like a cow chewing its cud.

Instead, let’s begin with a premise, a point of view, that happiness is something we can be, and have a right to be, and is actually the by-product of the Divine Order of Good running the universe.

Yes, in the funk we say, “Yea right,” and that’s ok. Let’s prove it to ourselves because remember, it is more comfortable for everyone when we allow ourselves to happy.

Here are a few examples of how to be grateful in a way that resets the internal system back to its original state of joy and happiness.

In today’s climate of uncertainly and change (which is always present just more promoted now then it has ever been) it may appear even more difficult to step away from it. Don’t believe it. Snapping out of it now is just the same as it was thousands of years ago and will be in the future because the lie is always the same just said in a variety of ways.

Let’s take one of the lie’s variations that pop into everyone’s mind when in a funk and see what we can do with it. How about the thought, “Nothing I ever do makes a difference, and no one really cares anyway.”

These thought, if true, would mean there is an aspect of the Divine Order that is not working right. This is impossible. Therefore our perception shift will be to prove this fact to ourselves so that we can once again experience happiness.

To do this we will need to notice those things that do make a difference. Notice that when you smile at someone it lights up their face. Notice the dew sitting on the grass makes it sparkle. Watch a baby smile, a bird sing in the tree, and the sun rise in the morning.

Avoid the thought that none of this is because of you, and instead translate what you are seeing back to qualities for which you can be grateful.

Perhaps it goes like this. “I am grateful that someone is happy, I am grateful for all those sparkles, I am grateful for the innocence of babies, I am grateful for birds singing, I am grateful that the sun always rises.”

Feel the Truth of this!

Keep going; the flame is starting to grow: “I am grateful for the order expressed in the stars moving smoothly in the night, I am grateful for the beauty of a flower, I am grateful for the ability to see all the evidence of Divine Order of which I am an integral part.”

Keep going; fan the flames with more gratitude for the power of Love, become immersed in the feeling of it. “I am grateful that trees send down roots, the bulbs that bloom in spring, and the clouds that scuttle across the sky. I am grateful for the presence of light in all its forms, for the laughter of children and the hugs of my friends.”

As we fan this flame of willingness with gratitude we will rise out any state of mind that hides happiness from us. Translating “things” back into thoughts, or qualities, we find the spiritual joy that opens our eyes to the infinite power of Good and Love that is the ground of our being.

We are not required to swing between joy and sorrow because within the Divine there is no “shadow of turning,” there is only the eternal now of ever present Joy. Happiness is a by-product of this awareness, and we can always choose to return to it.

Next time you hear “snap out of it” you can say, “Ok, I know how to do that!” And you know what? Sometimes that statement is all it takes!