I was tired of reading, of doing crossword puzzles, and generally passing time, but also worried about what I had been told by the doctors. 

So there I was, sitting in my armchair looking out at the setting sun, at the roof tops of the hospital buildings towards the new, still being built cardio-vascular unit. Pink stones with lines of white stone, and a patch not yet finished. 

That’s when I saw him – the stone mason, on a scaffold next to a patch not yet covered with stone. He was close enough that I could see him working, but far enough that I could not see every detail nor hear the sounds of drills and saws. He must have been working there for some time, because the patch was smaller than I remembered.

He was in the process of putting the finishing touches before the actual glueing, and finally the stone was in place. He adjusted it here, patted it there, very slowly, very lovingly, a real craftsman.
          The sun was now bright red and only a few centimeters about the horizon. It would soon be dark. And there was still a patch to be covered with stone.

Tomorrow, I said to myself, he will finish the job. My mobile rang, it was my son asking if I was in the mood for his visit. Always, I said. At that moment I realized that the stone mason was continuing to close the patch. In my mind began a race between the coming darkness, the stone mason and the arrival of my son.

With slow, deliberate movements he began preparing the patch and the stone, measuring, marking, cutting, patting the wall, touching as if to listen to the space. It seemed almost painfully slow.
           The sun had gone down in a fiery ball just a few blocks to the right, and the light was fading fast.

How can he see what he is doing, I thought to myself. Surely he has to stop for today! I sat glued to the window, not turning on the light, even though the dark hard almost completely taken over the room.

And still he kept working, measuring, drilling holes, touching, measuring, cutting. I could see sparks flying, as metal touched stone. I really had to strain my eyes to see what he was doing. Why doesn’t he do it tomorrow? I thought, When there will be better light.
            The sky was now very dark with streak of the last lingering red behind the mason.

Every 3 minute or so planes were landing or taking off at the airport, so close that I could see the control tower in the opposite direction of the worker. Behind him I could see the lights of cars on one of the busiest highways running through the country. Rush hour.

Once again I strained my eyes to let in as much light as possible. He finally picked up the stone and pressed in into place, patting, adjusting, touching lovingly. And then I saw it – there was still yet one small patch to be filled.

Was he going to do that as well? What’s the hurry? There’s another day tomorrow! Finally, through the dark I could see him packing up.

In my mind the darkness had won, as it had come before the mason finished the patch and before my son arrived. But who were the participants in the race but the images I had put there! The race was my imaginary reality.

So how many realities are there? Mine, the mason’s, my son trying to get through the traffic and the arduous job of finding a parking place, the passengers and crew in the planes taking off and landing, the people in the cars rushing home … 

Reality is not even what we think. Reality is only what we perceive at any given moment. Reality is completely and utterly subjective.

Jim Rohn: Author and motivational speaker

A few days into the New Year and by now most people have stated their New Year resolutions. I did not get mine done for the date, but I have them now.

But what are resolutions? They are basically decisions we take in order to achieve something. What makes them different from goals is that they are vague, like “I will drop those extra pounds”, “I will quit smoking”, and “I will look for a new job”. Resolutions stand by themselves, often without any connection to our larger desires and goals.

Goals are definite with quantity and date, when it will be achieved. They must be declared out loud, to friends, family or your journal. They are the stepping stones on our path to a greater dream or vision.

There are some sad facts about resolutions. Ask your friends and family, if they wrote them down. Only about 20 percent will bother to write down their goals for the New Year. And of those who do record their goals, only about 20 percent of them will reach them. Yes, only 4 out of 100 people have the plan combined with the discipline to accomplish what they set out to do.

It’s always too early to quit.

Norman Vincent Peale

Actually for many years past I stopped making resolutions, because I never kept them. What’s the point in promising myself something, and then year after year breaking it. It did not do much for my self-respect.

But this year I made two resolutions:

To let my light shine out through my Gift of Light; that no negative feeling about myself shall stop me

To take action every day to achieve at least one goal

The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it.

Chares DeLint

Birte Edwards

I would love to hear how you do with your resolutions? Leave a comment or question or even state your resolutions. You will find the place to write after tags.

What a wonderful tradition that once a year we are reminded to give with a loving heart, and once a year to make resolutions on what kind of people we want to become.

This makes me wonder – why do we need to be reminded to give? Is this the only time of the year to give from the heart? What is so different at this time of the year in the way we give (and receive)?

What about all those resolutions? What’s so different about that date (1/1/….) than any other date of the year? What happens to all those resolutions?

Now understand, I am no better at this than most other people. But we seem to have a short-term memory. The giving and receiving from the heart goes out of the window, as soon as the season is over. With purpose I say giving and receiving, as the real value is in the exchange. Yes, often we are told that when we give, we shall receive 10-fold. And thus it is and thus it shall be.

I know of many people who give and give, and one day they are burnt out. Now what is the purpose of that? All too often givers do not allow themselves to receive. And when we give, let’s not forget ourselves. There are many ways also of giving to ourselves, as we give to others.

The short-term memory goes also for the resolutions we make at this time of the year. If we are not going to keep them, we are better off not making them at all. The damage we do to ourselves when not keeping promises is so devastating. It causes our sub-conscious to stop believing in ourselves. So if we make a resolution, let’s keep it. Many make many resolutions, saying: This year is going to be different. Before long, however, they are back at where they started.

This posting is dedicated to a very dear friend, my coach and mentor, Bob Yeager. He sent me a video greeting this morning, and I promised to get it out to as many as possible. I have known him for a few months only, but I have come to know him on a very deep level. Although younger than my son, he has such profound knowledge and wisdom, that he shares with all who are willing to learn. Without his teachings this blog would not exist. Without his incredible knowledge and understanding of the internet, I could not do what I am doing here. Without his support and teachings I would still be in a very different place.

Please go to this link to see and hear his video postcard:

http://videopostcard-004.com/X.asp?5574701X1920

To you, Bob, I dedicate my resolution: to continue on my path to higher awareness and to share with all who are willing to achieve higher awareness for the purpose of creating peace within ourselves and in the world; for the purpose of all having equal opportunity to live lives of purpose by their own design; to find and work with and through their soul purpose.

Merry Christmas and Happy Prosperous New Year to you all!

Birte Edwards

If you want to improve yourself, and your business and internet skills: info on CAMP 

If you want to know more on how to find your soul purpose: info on delfin knowledge system by Leslie Fieger, my mentor.

If you desire to develop you soul purpose, purchase Steve D’Anunzio’s new book “The Prosperity Paradigm, my friend and mentor, and help him to achieve his soul purpose.

(I don’t make a dime out of this – I am paying back by paying forward)

Choice is not just deciding which pair of shoes to wear today, or whether to go somewhere or not. Choice is about deciding who we are, how we live our life, how we express ourselves, and most importantly – what we think and believe. Choice is about how we can make a difference in the world and if we want to make a difference to the world.

There are two general approaches to life: fatalistic (pre-determined) or freedom of choice. All too often we are told that it is written in the stars, it is god’s will (meaning we have no freedom). How do the people, who tell us that, know what is god’s will? Have they read god’s mind? Did they receive instructions directly from god in these matters, and not just from their human superiors or predecessors? They may have read the bible, but saying it is god’s will is their interpretation of what they perceive to be god’s will!

The bible clearly also talks about the freedom to choose. Right from that same story of Adam and Eve. Individually or together they could have chosen not to eat of the forbidden fruit and stayed within the security of the Garden of Eden. They both knew there would be a price to pay for eating of the forbidden fruit. God had told them that if they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge they would die. And still both of them chose to eat of the fruit.

We should ask ourselves two questions here:

• Why did they choose to eat of the fruit?
• Why did god create a tree and plant it in the garden and then told them not to eat of that fruit, on the punishment of death?

As to the first: Maybe it was just too boring to be within that security of the garden, always watched over by an over-protective parent. As humans they were supposed to be intelligent. Of course they were also naked – naked as children. Now where is the excitement and stimulation living like that? What kind of experiences could they possibly have within that kind of life?

As for the second: god from the beginning intended us to make choices. God challenged Adam and Eve with the temptation of banning something. (Yes, I know the bible says the snake – the snake is another intriguing aspect in this). Is there anyone here who has never broken a rule without finding it challenging and exciting? (But be careful about which rules you break). Mybe God wanted Adam and Eve to break the ban, to receive the ability to differentiate, to choose. But the initiative had to come from them. They had to show that they were willing to accept responsibility for the choice they had made, that they had matured into adults. Up until then they had been children. With knowledge they became adults.

Can you imagine what would have happened to Adam and Eve had they been thrown directly into the world without the earlier experience of living a protected life in the Garden of Eden? Can a child survive without the learning of childhood?

Now we all have a choice.

• To live our whole life in circumstances as if we were in the original Garden of Eden (security), as children being watched over by an over-protective parent
• Or to live in freedom out of choice and experience life, as we were meant to do.

There is one more aspect. In the Garden of Eden there seemed to be no real communication between god and Adam and Eve. After all, their lives were protected, they could wander all over the place, and there was plenty to eat. Outside the garden, when they had to work for everything, now they needed to communicate with god. Or rather now they were individuals with whom god was willing to communicate in order to show the real way.

Science has come such a long way in understanding the human body, how it functions. It has also come a long way in understanding the origins of life and its development. And the more I learn about the more amazed I am of the complexity of life, our bodies, in fact the whole universe.

Some things, however, science has not yet been able to determine. What is consciousness? How did it come into being?

Without our consciousness we would not be where we are today. We would be like most of the other living creatures on this planet. It is consciousness that sets us apart from other living things. Yes, I know that many animals, and especially the great apes have a form of consciousness, but it is not as developed as in humans.

And the funny thing about consciousness, when we study it, is that it is the only thing that studies itself … When we study our body, physics, the stars or microbes, we are studying something outside ourselves. When we study consciousness, it is the consciousness studying itself.

In personal and spiritual development we talk about different levels of consciousness. Here is one perspective on levels of consciousness and some descriptive words to help identify the differences:

not conscious – instinctual, follower
sub-conscious – habitual, robotic, reactive
conscious – aware, intelligent, conceptual, reflective
super-conscious (or higher) – intuitive, guiding, truthful, loving, universal

What I have found worthwhile is noticing at what level of consciousness I am at, as I go through my day. There are things I do on the non-conscious level, such as walking, my bodily functions. I am grateful for that, because my conscious mind would be totally overloaded if I had to think about it, and not leave me time for more important things.

The sub-conscious level is more problematic. That’s the one I really have to work on. It continually amazes me, how many things I do, ways I think and feel, because that’s the way it has always been done. That’s being a robot. Even writing here to some level is a mix of the three first levels, mingled with the fourth level.  

I used to think that because I was conscious of something that I was aware. There are so many imprints and paradigms in our brain that make us think that this is the way things are or have to be. But is that really so? Many of these imprints just make it seem to have to be so.

So I continually ask myself questions such as: Why do I feel this way? Why do I think like this? Is this way of being in line with who I really am? Is this really my feeling, my opinion, my thought, or did I pick it up somewhere along the line, because it fitted in with my environment? Does thinking like this serve me?

Can we change the way we feel? I once thought not, but I have learned better since. When I control the way O think and feel, I am in much greater control of my life.

Utilizing the conscious mind to direct the sub-conscious mind to enter into communication and harmony with the universal mind is the secret of personal power.

If we could shrink the earth’s population to exactly 100 people with the entire human ratio remaining the same, it would look something like this:

57 Asians

21 Europeans

14 from the Western hemisphere, both north and south

8 Africans

52 would be femate, 48 male

70 would be non-white, 30 white

70 would be non-Christian, 30 Christian

89 would be heterosexual, 11 homosexual

6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the US.

80 would be living in sub-standard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer from malnutrition

1 would be near death – 1 would be near birth

1 (yes only 1) would have a college education

1 would own a computer

When one considers the world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

The following is also something to ponder:

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness … you are more blessed than the million that will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of turture, or the pangs of starvation … you are ahead of 500 million people.

If you can attend a religious devotion meeting without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death … you are more blessed than 3 billion people.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on you back and in your cupboard, a roof over your head and a place to sleep … you are richer than 75% of the world.

If you have money in the bank, your wallet and spare dish in some place … you are among the the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than 2 billion people who cannot read.

I have not checked the numbers, but looking out on the world they are probably close to the real numbers.

I do strive to have more money than I have now, not to hoard it, but to be able to share even more and to create ways for those who don’t have these blessings. Money for me is a tool to achieve the goals and visions of my life – a world of equality for all, of peace and prosperity. The world is a truly abundant place and there is plenty for all of us. It is lack and poverty that cause us to fight ourselves and each other, to take from nature (without giving back) what was here before us and with the same right to be here as us (nature and wildlife).

No need to say more, except that we in Magnetic Freedom Global Community are also concerned and involved in changing the above, each in his or her own way.

In care for this world

Birte Edwards

If you want to learn more about being grateful and understanding what life can be also for you, just follow this link: info on Magnetic Freedom Global Community, and also receive a valuable gift.

If you want to learn more about spiritual awakening and development, follow this link: info on delfin knowledge system

The question is: what story do I want to tell. There are many stories to be told. I have always had the urge to write, but never considered myself a writer. After all, who am I? Why would anyone listen to me? What do I have to say that anyone would find of interest?

The only story I can really thing of is my own. Will that be of interest to anyone? I have no idea, and it may not really be of concern. It is said that the greatest writers do not write for their audience, but for themselves, but are often totally identified with one or more of the characters.

So if one day someone reads this and finds it of interest and through the telling of who I am and how I reached the place where I am now, and through this finds inspiration to start his/her path of creative expression, then it has been worthwhile, and I have been of service.

Being of service is what I like to do. Being of service without knowing to whom and how, is to me the ultimate expression of being of service.

Writing here is a journey of discovery for me, and that is exciting. The most exciting part is discovering truly and fully who I am, what I am capable of,  what I can create, how far I can go. It is not the achievement of the individuals goal, however important they are. It’s the journey, the discovery, that excites me. Writing is not the discovery, it is a tool for expressing the journey, the path I have chosen.

Is this a story to be told? I think so. It is ever unfolding, ever growing, ever changing. It’s a story of learning and unlearning, of realizing my connections, my power of expression.

One of the realizations I have come to is that living life according the way others think it should be lead, according to the thoughts and beliefs imposed by others, by my environment, is not to live at my greatest potential. A long time ago I was told that I was not a writer. So what!!! If I want to write, I can and will. Here, there and everywhere. I have read a lot of stuff by people I think cannot write, and they do it, and are being read.

 I will tell my story as it unfolded and is unfolding. By putting it down black on white, I am clarifying my thoughts and feelings on who I am, what I want to become, what I believe.

If there will be anyone who takes an interest in this, wow – that’s fantastic. We all have stories. We all have something to tell. Each and every one of us is a story. We are all unique. All stories deserve to be told.

I have often wondered what was the purpose of a particular decision. I can of course see the result of those monents. Was I aware of the implications at the time of taking these decisions? I may have thought I was, but in retrospective the results were often somewhat different than expected.

One such moment stands out more sharply. It’s one of those moments you never forget.

January 1968. I was spending time in Israel as a volunteer on a kibbutz. Just out of highschool with time to spare, as I was deciding what to do with myself and my life. After having been on the kibbutz for about three months we came on our first visit to Jerusalem as part of the program.

It was late in the evening after touring and talks about the city. We were staying in a hostel in downtown Jerusalem in walking distance from the Old City. Suddenly there was a knock on my door, and two friends asked me if I wanted to join them on a visit to the Wester Wall (or as it was still called in those days “The Wailing Wall”). Without hesitation I threw on my coat and scarf and joined them.

Walking through the lit-up streets of modern Jerusalem we soon reached the Jaffa Gate into the Old City. Here things became different. The alleys were narrow and dark and winding. But worst of all they were almost deserted except from a few Arabs visiting small very dirty looking coffee places. After all less than nine months had passed, since the Old City became part of Israel as a result of the Six-Day War.

I put up my hood to cover my long hair, trying to pretend to be a guy like my two companions. Soon we turned off the main marketplace into an even narrower alley also twisting and turning, and finally came to the top of a staircase looking over a large plaze, backed by a tall wall. I knew it was the Western Wall, the holiest place to the Jewish people.

The plaze was also almost deserted, except for a few men praying in the men’s section. Nobody in the women’s section. I was all by byself, and actually happy for that. I felt safe. I walked up to these ancient stones, cold and wet from the rain. I stretched out my hand and touched these stones that have been standing here for 2000 years, once part of the temple compound.

What can I tell you? This night I learned that stones can speak. Was it the stones? Or was it the prayers of thousands and thousands of people who have prayed here since the destruction of the temple? Or was it something else? Behind the Wall is the peak of Mount Moria, believed by the Jewish people to be the home of divine presence.

I can’t tell you. What I do know is that a message came to me, so strongly and so powerfully that I could hardly tear myself away. My friends were calling me. It was time to leave.

I have been back to the Wall many times since. Does it still speak? Not in the same way as that night. Did it influence my decision to make Israel my home? Absolutely, although not the only reason.

So can you see why I talk about a thread in my life?

Whenever I follow my true calling, my heart, the thread glows golden and bright. Whenever I stear in other directions the color dims and changes. I can even see it moving into the future. Not a long way yet, but it is growing. Can I predict my future? Of course not, but I know which direction to take so that it my thread will stay golden and glowing.

Birte Edwards

If you want to know more about how I found and can follow my golden thread, you can follow these links: info on Magnetic Freedom Global Community and info on delfin Knowledge System.

Gratitude is the most powerful emotion to tell god, yourself, the universe, that you are grateful for what you have. When we are grateful for something, we get more of it.

We gain so much by being in gratitude

* we get more of what we have (and who does not want to get more of the things we are grateful for?)

* we clarify to ourselves the things that we desire

* gratitude keep us focused

There are of course hundreds of way to be grateful, and millions of things to be grateful for. Yes millions! Like a good night’s sleep, waking up in the morning, a roof over your head, the birds singing outside the window, the smile of a stranger, the unexpected check in the mail box, small things, big things. It does not matter.

So join us in this dance, and I hope you will do like I do every time I watch it – get out of my chair and dance.

———

If you want to  learn more about being grateful and understanding what life can really be about for you can just follow this link: info on Magnetic Freedom Global Community, and also receive a valuable gift.

Some years ago I was down and out, on the verge of taking my own life. I was almost broke, spent many sleepless nights in fear of the day, when I would not have anything left, and become a financial burden to my loved ones.

And despite this anxiety I picked up a book I had recently received and opened it to this:

No person can be confronted with a difficulty which he has not the strength to meet and subdue … Every difficulty can be overcome if rightly dealt with: anxiety is, therefore, unnecessary. The task wich cannot be overcome ceases to be a difficulty and becomes an impossibility … and there is only one way of dealing with an impossibility - namely to submit to it 

 James Allen, “The Byways of Blessedness”

There are several ways of reading this. What I did NOT see – if something becomes an impossibility, submit to it, ie. commit suicide. What I did read was: that anxiety is unnecessary and there is no purpose to submit to it. God/universe does not give us tasks that we cannot handle. We all have what it takes to deal with what life throws our way. All we need to do is look for the things that will help us overcome.

What is needed is to stay open to new information (which I must have been). When a challenge (or popularly called – a problem) comes along, it may at first glance seem that there is no way around, through or whatever.

An impossibility is something where we simply do not have the information required to handle it. So why waste time and energy on it?

I allowed myself a change of attidue and began changing my thoughts, stopped worrying. Every time I felt anxiety creep in, in my mind I crossed it out with black paint. (Today I know that white paint is better). I began substituting these thoughts with new positive, creative thoughts. It took some time, but everything began to change, and it did also give me renewed strength to look for new ways, new informations, new knowledge.

What I also realized was that when facing challenges one of the most important qualities to have is patience. Nothing changes overnight. If it did we would have no need for our creative powers and persistence.

Instead of the depressive thoughts I began asking myself: what can I do to change the situation? What do I already have that I can use to create what I want? What qualities do I have? What knowledge do I have?

And of course the answers kept coming. And they still do, because I keep asking myself these or similar questions. In fact at some point I felt so overwhelmed with options, I did not know where to go and which one to do first. But I continued to explore, since I also began knowing more in details what I wanted and where I wanted to go.

I began setting goals, but soon realized that as important as it was to reach these goals, the way, the process was equally important. It was as if I was driving on a dark, deserted road, knowing from where I had come and to where I was going, but not being able to see further than the headlights were lighting up. But that was enough, because once I had travelled the distance to the edge of the headlights, they were again out there ahead of me, so I could keep seeing.

 Is it easy? Not always, just as it is not easy to drive on a dark road with only the headlights to show where I am. But it sure is fun, entertaining and illuminating. The further I go, the more fun, joy and gratitude I feel for having found that quote.

Now, you may ask, is one quote like that enough to get someone out of such a black hole (as I call it)? thank you for asking. Of course not, there was much more in the book, and I soon also found many other tools (that was part of my searching).

But once I took the decision not to wallow in anxiety, one thing followed another. And when a dear friend introduced me to a global community, I went for it. What they were doing took my breath away, and is now shaping my life in ways I could not have imagined. I get more and more tools, I am now CREATING my life and ATTRACTING all that I need to go where I am destined.

And you know what? Somehow I was not as broke as I made myself out to be. I kept finding the means to travel the road I had chosen, and as these things unfolded, my vision of my life became clearer and clearer.

 You see what got me off track to begin with was not having a track, a path, a vision. I had left my dreams behind in the process of life. I had abandoned what I had once aspired to do and be. We are nothing without our dreams and aspirations, our vision and missions.

I am forever grateful to my friend and all the friends I now have in the global community who help and support me. But more importantly who allow me to help and support them. This is part of who I am, and my life’s mission.

My eternal gratitude for this community and for all that the people there do.

Birte Edwards

If you would like more information on Magnetic Freedom Global Community, one of the ways is to follow this link: info on Magnetic Freedom Global Community and at the same time receive a FREE Gold Membership.