Take a moment to close your eyes and take three breaths. Simply get a sense of yourself as you breathe in and out. Gently let your eyelids fall and allow the sensation of breathing to prevail. Relax.

Imagine that you are sitting at the edge of a deep pool, feet in the water, pants or skirt hiked up. Feel the warmth or the coolness of the water on your bare skin. Wiggle your toes in the current. Notice your seat against the edging of the pool; feel the air against your skin. And, relax.

As you are now fully placed in this dream-state become aware that there are fish swimming below. Some are beautifully colored and move gracefully within their school. There are several large sharks slowly circling in the shadows, neither retreating nor moving forward. Manage any considerations you may have about having your feet share the same water as these creatures. Notice the sensations that are predominant in your body and relax into them.

Realize that you cannot know what will happen next. Shift your awareness by simply feeling what it is like to be here, seated betwixt and between and manage the impulses that may try to dislocate you from this position.

Open to this in-between space, and receive what is here waiting. Allow the images, memories, and feelings to find you and observe.

It is in the “betwixt and between” that our conscious mind gives way to the unconscious and our dreams give voice to our soul.

“There’s an old story about a farmer who went to the Buddha seeking help for his problems.  Either droughts or monsoons make his work difficult, he complained.  What’s more, he grumbled, even though he loved his wife, there were certain things about her he wanted to change.  Likewise his children – yes, he loved them, but they weren’t turning out quite the way he wanted.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you, “the Buddha told the farmer.

“What do you mean?” railed the farmer.  “You’re supposed to be a great teacher!”

All human beings have 83 problems,” the Buddha replied.  “A few problems may go away, but soon enough others will arise.  So we’ll always have 83 problems.”

The farmer asked indignantly, “Then what’s the good of all your teaching?”

The Buddha answered, “My teaching can’t help with the 83 problems, but perhaps with the 84^th problem.”

“What’s that?” asked the farmer.

“The 84^th problem is that we don’t want to have any problems.”

Bayda, Ezra  (May/June, 2002).  Facing you monsters.  Body and Soul, p. 44, 46, & 48.

Are the situations that present themselves in our everyday life meant to be challenges or inspirations? If you were the farmer who complained to the Buddha about his crops, his wife and his children, you would soon learn that it is only by truly understanding the solution to the 84^th problem that one can rest harmoniously in life.

Although any problem can present as an obstacle, impediment, difficulty, or challenge, its ultimate gain is the manner and method in which one rises to inspire resolution. If we were to change the word “problems” to “teachings,” and if we were to take delight in their daily offerings, we could actually greet the day in hopes of seeing ourselves inspired.

I am dedicated to helping people Rest within a Sense of Wholeness^TM.

Resting within a Sense of Wholeness means you have the tools and methods to:

• Recognize your worth
• Have clarity of purpose
• Be free from conditioning
• Be integrated in mind, body, heart, and spirit
• Act in service to humanity and the planet
• Deliver on promises
• Accept yourself as you are revealed within your relationships
• Access your natural way of being
• Communicate clearly and compassionately
• Cultivate an inner dialogue
• Transform difficulty into opportunity
• Manage the subtleties and the dramatics surrounding change
• Be graceful in your transitions
• Utilize the right methodology in the right situation
• Greet with curiosity that which you cannot control

There is something within us that is innate and capable of a deep reverence for all life. The Empathic Civilization

In life, perhaps in this moment, we are given an opportunity to listen. If we are still, we may actually hear what is calling to us. We have a choice at this time; “do I listen” or “do I move back into the familiar patterns of my life?” Do I answer the call and take the risk inherent in it’s promise - to change me and “riddle” me into being more fully who I am?

” Often in actual life, and not infrequently in the myths and popular tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered; for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests. Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and is meaningless – even though, like King Minos, he may through titanic effort succeed in building an empire of renown. Whatever house he builds, it will be a house of death: a labyrinth of cyclopean walls to hide from him his Minotaur. All he can do is create new problems for himself and await the gradual approach of his disintegration.” (Campbell, 1949, p. 59)

“Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains,

and the maker of pine mountains!

All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars.

The acid that tests gold is there, and the one who judges jewels.

And the music from the strings that no one touches, and the

source of all water 

If you want the truth, I will tell youthe truth:

Friend, listen:  the God whom I (you) love is inside.”

Bly, R.  (1971).  The Kabir book:  Forty-four of the ecstatic poems of Kabir.  Beacon: Boston