June 2006 Archives
I’m back, and I am going to post more about the conference and my delayed trip home a.s.a.p., but here is what I wrote on Friday, just after my class at the Southeastern Spiritual Conference finished up, and haven't had the chance to post till now:
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Just a quick note while I’m still buzzing like an electrical transformer from the last session of the class I’ve been facilitating! In case you missed it, I’m at the Southeastern Spiritual Conference in Greensboro, NC, and I’ve been teaching a 5-part class for 2 hours a day called, “The Paradise Process: Keys to Reclaiming the Bliss That Is Your Birthright.” I so very much want to share this with you, and yet I find myself speechless with joy! I guess it’s the kind of experience that is so beyond words, that it is silly to try to put it in writing.
BUT, when did silliness stop me?! It was truly a remarkable group of openhearted beings, who were totally present in every moment. Okay—that’s a very slight exaggeration—it was right after lunch, so there was a moment here and there where people were moving into…shall we say…an “altered state’! But no one flat out fell asleep and snored! We took lots of frequency-raising breaks.
I took them through, essentially, what amounts to everything in Recreating Eden. Well, THAT’S an exaggeration, too—we hit the highlights of most of the book and went beyond it as well. I have definitely grown in understanding since I finished the book, and that is all woven into my teaching.
What a thrill to have a class so ready and eager! Just about everyone in the group had been on the spiritual path for awhile and jumped right in. Everyone seemed to “get it” and that made it really easy for me to bring through information rapidly and cover a lot of ground. I truly felt that it was a meeting of the minds—and hearts—on the leading edge of the recreating Eden wave!
While I love my telephone classes, there is nothing that surpasses seeing people’s faces and be able to use that as input to get a sense of whether or not they’re on the same page, not to mention, it’s more fun to dance together when we’re not in separate rooms!
On this last day, we covered unconditional radiance and intentional joy, and for the closing exercise of the class, we had a dance party to….Earth Wind & Fire, of course! I had to chair-dance, as my knee is still feeling the insult of the last upright dancing I did 2 weeks ago at the graduation party for stepdaughter #2, and while I wished I had been able to move freely, it did not stop me from rocketing further up the vibrational scale to ecstasy!
I am doing my best not to wish the class could have gone on longer, but the synergy we co-created was so powerful, it's a challenge not to want it to go on and on and on. Of course, it does, but we human beings tend to like to be able to be with each other in the flesh!
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More soon about my trip home and some other conference highlights!
I was wanting to direct someone to this story and couldn't find it on the blog anywhere, so I must have never posted it before! So here it is...
The Red Diamond: How My Soulmate Came to Me
As of September 26, 1997, it had been almost 18 years since my first husband and I divorced, 9 years since my last serious boyfriend, and 8 years since my last real date. While I longed for partnership, and had made list after list of the qualities I wanted in a mate, I always added, “someday” to my thoughts about being with that special man of my longings.
You see, like pretty much everyone else, I had experienced pain in relationships because of limiting beliefs and unhealthy behavioral patterns taken on in my Earth sojourn, and I was determined to protect myself from more of the pain. The last relationship I had manifested had been the last straw in a string of relationships with unavailable men, mirroring my own belief that I was the “good time girl,” and not the one men wanted to marry. While I longed for partnership, intimacy and deep committment, I had taken on a belief that I couldn’t have it. The last man I had been involved with was a perfect mirror for my fear. We got very, very close, then he got scared, and pulled away. That hurt so badly, I swore off relationships until I could perfect myself to the point I’d never draw in another unavailable man as long as I lived.
I had been intently “working on myself” for many years, doing all I knew how to clear out old, damaging belief systems, to grow spiritually, and to heal myself so that the next relationship I would create would be healthy, harmonious, intimate and committed. I had deliberately pulled the plug on any relationship that smacked at all of my old pattern, signifying to the Universe that I was not just paying lip service to the concept—I was serious about shifting it. I was trying in earnest to be sure that I would not attract yet another dysfunctional relationship, and I was not about to open myself to a relationship until I felt I was no longer vulnerable to the old patterns.
Even though I was at the pinnacle of my physical attractiveness, I had not even had one nibble in eight years, nor even a mild heart flutter! Sure—I’d had some male admiration, but no approaches. It was almost as if I were wearing a neon sign saying, “Stay away!” And truthfully, it suited me just fine—I never even felt unhappy about it, and never came across anyone I’d be really interested in. My inner sense of things and my outer experience were matching up just right as far as I was concerned. Still, I worked on my list for that right man of the future. He would be funny, kind, affectionate, easy-going, willing to grow, and on the same wavelength spiritually as I.
This last qualification was the kicker. Having a nowhere-near-mainstream spiritual perspective, and not having found, at the time, anyone, male or female, who seemed to see things the way that I saw them, it seemed like it would be quite impossible to magnetize someone who looked at things as I did. And it seemed really safe when I declared that I would not ever have a relationship with anyone who didn’t share the same spiritual wavelength, since I had little or no confidence such a man existed! As a game to prove to myself it was impossible, I said to the Universe, “If there is such a man, please show me a sign.” Having taken a workshop on “signs and wonders,” and having been told it is crucial to choose a specific sign so you’ll know when you’ve received it from God, I decided to make my sign something I had never heard of, and the idea of a “red diamond” popped into mind. I then said to the Universe, “If there is a man for me who meets my stringent qualifications, please show me a red diamond, and do so within the next 24 hours.” Not only was I pretty sure there was no such thing as a red diamond, I had no plans to leave my house in the next 24 hours, so I felt it was a sure bet there would be no confirming sign, and I could rest in smug safety—and a little disappointment—that no “man of my dreams” existed.
That evening, as I channel surfed, I came upon a shopping channel, and the image on the screen was a red faceted stone, a red zircon, and the chirpy host was saying, “This isn’t like a ruby, it’s much more like a red diamond.” A chill ran up my spine. But I thought, “she is probably making that up—there’s probably not such a thing as a red diamond.” And I went to get my gem and mineral book to see if, by any minute chance, there was a listing for a red diamond. There, in full color, was a photo of the “extremely rare red diamond”! It was clear to me that God was telling me that there was, indeed that very rare man that would be just right for me, and that he would come to me “someday”…when I was ready.
Ready came sooner than I expected! On September 25, 1997, just a few weeks after I saw my sign, I wandered into the book department of a large discount chain store, and was drawn to a book, The Unimaginable Life, by Kenny Loggins and his wife, Julia, about their relationship. I bought it and immediately began to devour it. It was so intimate, and so revelatory and so rich with feeling, I found myself wanting what they had. They had acknowledged that their relationship was a sacred spiritual path, and in reading it, I realized that growing in relationship with someone is like taking a graduate course in spiritual growth, and with spiritual growth being my prime focus, I knew it was what I needed as my next step. As I turned the last page, I said, haltingly, to the Universe, “I’m ready now to grow spiritually within an intimate relationship with a man.”
That was September 26, 1997. Just after I finished the book, I went online to visit Kenny’s website because the book had advertised that there was a forum for people interested in the principles in The Unimaginable Life. There, I saw a message from a nice man named Rick, who lived in Denver. We became email buddies, and then, after some weeks, lovers. Miraculously, his spiritual understandings were so on par with mine that when I read a spiritual essay that he had written, I wondered if I, myself, had written it! He matched all the other qualifications on my list except some silly ones—instead of the six foot tall guy I’d asked for, he was 5’11 and a half! On May 31, 1999, a year and a
half after we met, Rick and I were married, and we have been growing in love ever since.
I learned from that experience that the Universe is so very ready to provide for you, you just need to say “Yes!” with gusto, and in your blessing will flow!
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©2006 Julia Rogers Hamrick, author of Recreating Eden
www.recreating-eden.com
I’m busy packing, packing, packing! I leave Friday for North Carolina and the Southeastern Spiritual Conference. I’m getting excited, despite the dream I had the other night where 100 people showed up and I wasn’t prepared. Yikes! No worries in real life, though—there were 15 people signed up for my workshop as of Monday, and as I recall, I asked them to limit my group to 20 or so. Not to mention, I’m pretty well prepared and will be more so by the first class meeting!
I have had “teacher not prepared” nightmares for much of my life. Not sure what that means, but I know it is something that haunts me. The funny thing is that it’s when I over prepare that I am more likely to get in trouble—too rigid—not going with the Flow. But I believe it will be just right. The way this is set up—5 days of 2-hour classes—I can rest assured that there will be time to cover everything, and time between classes to figure out what didn’t get covered that needs to be. I am determined to be relaxed about this, and to not try to cram too much down their throats! I have been accused of delivering way too much information with not enough integration time. It’s nice that there will be 22 hours in between classes.
The thing is, I’ve been craving an opportunity like this to really immerse people in what I have now dubbed “The Paradise Process,” which is, basically, what is covered in Recreating Eden, plus additional insights I’ve had since I wrote the book. It will be really fun to go in depth with people and see how that goes!
Here is the description of the workshop:
The Paradise Process - Keys to Reclaiming the Bliss that is Your Birthright
In this paradigm-shifting workshop experience, you will gain a revolutionary perspective and tools to unlock the gates to the sublime realms of higher frequency. For untold generations, humanity has been entangled in the duality matrix, operating at lower frequency, and thus, our experience has been fraught with turmoil, struggle, and pain, instead of the peace, ease, and joy we once knew and long to know once more. We will learn what we must do as individuals to disentangle from duality and rise in frequency back to the level where Paradise—the realm of Wholeness and Harmony—manifests fully in our experience.
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Doesn’t that sound like a cool workshop? I don’t think it’s too late to get in on the fun, so if you are in the vicinity, or just feel like jumping on a plane and joining us in Greensboro, come on!!! You can use the link above to find out more of the details..
So…I’m flying to Greensboro on Friday afternoon and will arrive late that night. My sister will pick me up and I’ll spend Friday and Saturday nights at her house. It will be great to spend time with her and to get to rest up before checking in at the conference Sunday evening.
I’m planning to take my computer, and supposedly will have Internet access, but just in case I don’t get a chance to post to my blog while I’m gone, I’ll do so a.s.a.p. when I get back! I’m returning late Saturday night, June 24. Please think joyful thoughts for my journey!
I’m feeling like I should post an entry to my blog, but you know how motivational “should” is—not very! So instead of making myself write something when I’m not up for it, I’ll post a couple of photos.
This is my favorite time of year in the garden. The first picture was taken just this past week looking out to my happy place in the shade:
Stepdaughter #3 is on her way to France tomorrow for 5 weeks to stay with the family of a friend of her mother’s, and she needed some cash, so she asked me if I had any garden work for her. Of course I had lots, but even if I hadn’t, I’d have figured out something for her! She is so much fun, and we have a really wonderful time working in the garden together. I'm going to miss her!!!
The next picture is from last summer. I just love it the quality of the light in it. It has such a magical look to it. It’s the path from the patio off the back of the house out to my “happy place.” In this one, you can see the chairs, etc.
It’s a much drier and hotter spring this year than last, and I’ll be surprised if the pansies last much longer. But the yellow ones always seem to be able to take the heat. (In the interest of full disclosure, this photo is from last year, but this year’s yellow pansies look just the same and are in the same spot, surrounded by catmint!)
Speaking of dry, hot springs, this spring is strongly reminiscent of Spring 2002, when we got Lilah. Her “Gotcha Day” was June 8, 2002, so she’s been with us now for 4 years. It really seems like last week when she came to live with us! Here are a couple of Lilah then, and one of Lilah last week. She’s quite the character! This first one is of the first moment we met. I should have known right away that she 's a dog that "can't hold her licker." She started licking me then and she's been licking me--or whoever is around--every moment she can get away with it since. The next two are Lilah at 10 weeks old and Lilah now, at 4 years old.
Okay. That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the pictures! I'll make another blog entry before I leave this coming Friday for the Southeastern Spiritual Conference!
I was getting ready to post this to a forum at Powerful Intentions, but decided that others might appreciate this, too. So, I’m posting it here!
When you’re in the midst of spiritual growth, aligning with your God-Realized Self more and more, spending more time in Prime Matrix, taking in more and more Light, and expanding more and more, you can suddenly find yourself very, very crabby and feeling congested and anything but joyful. When this happens, understand that you are displacing your ego, and ego will do what it has to to survive. It will clamp down on the flow of Love through you to the best of its ability to prevent you from spending more time out of it’s realm of influence, and bring up all your “stuff” so that it seems to be right in your face.
Of course, the first thing that you experience when this happens is…resistance! And what part of you is the resistance master? Ego, of course. So it’s a double trap. It’s important to understand what is going on so that you don’t find yourself stuck at lower frequency, right where the ego would like for you to be, any longer than necessary. Instead of shutting down in response to this, the answer is to be non-resistant—to observe it and just go, “Hmmm…no thanks!” And to open up more and more and to whatever is needed to allow the Love to flow again. You can’t dissolve a shadow with anything but more Light.
To illustrate this phenomenon, there is an exercise I do in some of my workshops where I take a clear cylindrical jar filled with pure water and say that it represents you in the beginning, pure Light and Love without any of the fear and ego stuff you pick up during your Earth journey. Then I drop a teaspoon of instant coffee into it and we watch as the granules float down and the water turns murky, with some of the granules going to the bottom. We imagine that it is the "crud" that you take on in response to living in the duality matrix with egos running the show. (I always see the granules that sink to the bottom as the stuff that you store that detonates later and you don't have a conscious knowledge of what it is or where it came from).
Then I ask those in the class "How are we going to get the coffee out? How are we going to purify?" Obviously, you can't un-dissolve the coffee, or somehow pick it out. Next, I pour pure, clean water, which I characterize as "Light" into the top of the jar, which begins to displace the coffee water, which rises up and spills over into the big bowl the jar is in. As the clear water pours in, though, the granules from the bottom also get stirred up and the dark water rises to the top. I tell them to pretend that at the top of the jar is your perceptions, and that if you didn't know better, based on seeing more coffee instead of less, your ego would believe that things were going wrong and that taking in more Light was causing things to get worse--and might see the solution as being to shut down on the in-pouring of the Light.
Of course, that's exactly what would keep you stuck with the darkness "in your face." The truth is that only by continuing to flush with Light will you get rid of the murkiness, so the answer is not to shut down, but continue to open, open, open! Then I continue pouring in the pure water until the jar of water is completely clear again. It is something I do to show that in an intensive spiritual experience such as the workshop, or in their ongoing re-spiritualization of our lives, there will be stuff stirred up within us and not to be concerned when it happens but celebrate it as part of the process and keep doing what they’re doing to let in more Light.
It is an exercise I go back to in my mind over and over again during my own spiritual purification process. I will confess that I am frequently tripped up by ego’s challenges to my enlightenment, and the first thing that comes to mind has not always been, “Oh! More Light is needed!” But I am learning not to resist it. I am learning to go to the Step-By-Step Frequency Raising System (as spelled out in the last blog entry) and work the steps so that I release ego resistance and flood my being with Love and Light so that I move back into the joy space once more!
