“… flare up like flame and make big shadows I can move in …” ~ Rilke

I was noticing that trust and truth share the first three letters “tru”.  I went searching for the origins and etymology of both words, trust and truth, and found that they share in common one word — faithful.  I began to explore then how trust and truth might be linked and to what and whom is it that I am faithful.

Recently I’ve written about how I’ve diminished my own authority in the world.  This is to not trust in the truth of who I am, it is instead to negate it.   And here’s the rub: I have so much authority that I even have the authority to diminish my own authority.  I have had all the authority all along.  I am the author of my life.  I have the power to play it small or play it big.  I have the power to make myself weak or strong, meek or bold, broken or whole.  I can choose to self censor and diminish myself.  I can choose its opposite too.

So I’ve been playing a little game of smoke and mirrors.  I’ve been so powerful I could pretend I was weak.  It’s a myth I have created that I was ever less than, a myth of my own making.  I have both the power to bind myself in chains and the power to relieve myself of them, too.

I had it a bit backwards when I said in my 30 day challenge I would speak my truth, I would honor it, I would not defer it, explain it or stuff it.  I put the proverbial cart before the horse.  Guess what?  I can’t really know my truth until I know myself.  And I mean “know” myself in terms of not denying myself.  This means trusting in a greater truth, trusting in the fullness, the wholeness of all that I really am and remaining faithful to that truth.

Joseph Campbell has said the privilege of a lifetime is in being who you are.  I am feeling that life is too short for me to deny myself that privilege even for one moment longer.

We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

Destruction before creation.

* * *

Follow your bliss.

* * *

The heroic life is living the individual adventure.

Nothing is exciting if you know what the outcome is
going to be.

To refuse the call means stagnation.

***

You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there
is no path.

Where there is a way or path it is someone else’s path.

You are not on your own path.

If you follow someone else’s way, you are not going to
realize your potential.

* * *

It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the
treasures of life.

Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.

* * *

You become mature when you become the authority for
your own life.

* * *

The creative act is not hanging on but yielding to new
creative movement.

Art is the set of wings to carry you out of your own
entanglement.

* * *

Dew is an ambrosia fallen from the moon.

* * *

The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation.

When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then
comes the new life and all that is needed.

* * *

All we really want to do is dance.

* * *

A bit of advice given to a young Native American at the
time of his initiation:

“As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm.

Jump.

It is not as wide as you think.”

Reflections on the Art of Living
A Joseph Campbell Companion
Selected and Edited by Diane K. Osbon

Follow your bliss, those were the immortal words of Joseph Campbell and oft quoted by Abraham Hicks.  I love its simple message coupled with Abraham’s message that appreciation is what brings us closest to our true nature and Source Energy.   G.K. Chesterton also said: “praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul”.  I love that quote.  To appreciate, to praise is to follow my bliss.

I’m listening to the cliff note’s version of “Happy For No Reason”, these mp3′s are put out by Philosopher’s Notes.  I highly recommend them.  Happy For No Reason presents several ideas.  The one I like the most is giving out awards daily.  The best cloud award of the day.  The most beautiful flower award of the day.  The kindest driver award today.  The nicest customer service person today.  Or how about this: the biggest raindrop that plopped on my head today; hello, I live in Seattle after all :).  As I was walking outside today, I thought of the prettiest bird song award.  The loveliest red maple leaf award.  The best dog tail wag today.  The best Autumn season ever award.  The most gleeful children’s voices award today.  The funnest laugh of the day.  The chubbiest bumble bee award.  You get the idea, you can tailor it to your likes and make it your own.

The idea is so much about appreciation.  I remember when I first started out with the teachings of Abraham and all I did was practice appreciation.  Talk about an easy method for turning your boat downstream.  What I loved about Happy For No Reason is that it reminded me how sometimes the simplest stuff is overlooked in the busyness of the day.  I forget how easy it is to turn my attention to the things I love and appreciate.  As I get back in the flow of what is the natural pulsation of my soul, I remember again just how good it feels to love, to praise, to appreciate.

Happy For No Reason also quotes a parable that was part of one my very first blog posts here entitled Feeding the Lover, have a look at it via the link, if you like.  It’s good wisdom even today.

Thanks to Ritama for recommending Philosopher’s Notes and Ritama you get my Best Not-Yet-Seen-In-The-Physical Fellow Blogger Award today!  How is that for a mouthful?! :)

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life.
I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking.
I think what we’re seeking
is an experience of being alive…
so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.
~Joseph Campbell~

“We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us.  The labyrinth is thoroughly known.  We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god…Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence.  And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world.”
~Joseph Campbell~

I am reading Broken Open by Elizabeth Lesser.  The above Joseph Campbell quote is excerpted from this book.  I haven’t gotten very far in the book so I can’t really make a recommendation one way or the other but if you have gone through a recent particularly difficult time, it might be the book for you.

I call these particularly difficult times the “pinch me” times.  There are two types of pinch me’s.  Pinch me, I must be dreaming, this is too good to be true and then the other kind: pinch me, I want to wake up from this nightmare.  But the nightmare is real and the waking up that follows is vastly different than waking up from a nightmare with a grateful sigh of relief that it really didn’t happen.  Thankfully most of us can count on one hand how many of the latter we have experienced.  It might be a divorce, a major move, a job loss, it might be the loss of a loved one that thrusts us abruptly into a territory we weren’t quite prepared to enter.  Suddenly we are left caught off guard, vulnerable, raw and unready to face this new challenge.

Many have moved through such times before us and paved a path, they leave bread crumbs of hope along the way.  They carve out handholds to grasp for support. They are the heroes that have taken this path before us and chosen to lend a hand to others along the way.

The Obama administration speaks of service, of cultivating an attitude of ‘we can do it’.   The heroes that I speak of, are in service too, every bit a part of the we can do it.  To all of you heroes, I say thank you.

Love, Bethie

A bit of advice
given to a young Native American
at the time of his initiation:

As you go the way of life,
you will see a great chasm.

Jump.

It’s not as wide as you think.

~Reflections on the Art of Living~
A Joseph Campbell Companion