GOD IS a verb. GOD IS…I AM

       “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”  (Hebrews 3:4)

A new home is being built on the lot behind me.  Every morning, I hear the hammers and saws, and I can see the progress being made.  I’ve met the new owners and they are very nice and seem to be a lot of fun.  When we first spoke, they saw me sitting on my back porch and they waved and walked toward me.  I met them halfway out.  They were telling me how disappointed they were with how long it was taking to get the foundation poured.  I assured them that is the part of the home-building process that seems to take longest, and once it was done, the rest of the house would follow quickly.  That is really pretty much how life works, as well.

In the early stages of anything new, we have to be sure to lay a firm foundation to build upon.  It requires patience.  We have to be sure the placement is exactly where we want it.  We have to dig deep to secure the forms.  We have to step back to allow others to do the preliminary work of wiring it for the future, and we have to weather the storms as we insure that the right materials are placed into the frame to hold it securely grounded.  We must endure several inspections by others and finally, we fill it with the cement to hold it all together.

Anyone in the building business can tell you how important it is to get the foundation right.  I know that each time my husband is preparing to have a foundation poured, he spends the preceding night with little sleep.  At dawn, he heads out the door and is on the job, making sure everything is going exactly as it should be.  When the final area is smooth and set, the owners can, at last, imagine exactly where each room will be located.  It is so exciting to walk around on top of a newly-poured foundation…it feels so strong and permanent.  Once it is finished, the remaining process goes quickly.

Knowing that all form requires a firm foundation, it is very important for us to realize how imperative it is to get it right.  Yes, it sometimes takes longer than we want, but the payoff is huge.  No matter what steps you are taking towards any goal you have set, be patient with yourself and with the process.  Know that everything is being handled just as it should be, and trust that what is built upon that foundation will be secure and safe.  You are backed with a guarantee and an extremely reliable builder whose reputation is impeccable!

Many people build their foundation on faith, alone.  That is where the anxiety arises, however.  Blind faith takes all control out of your hands and hands it over to others.  I suggest you build your foundation coming from a higher place of understanding.  If you have understanding, control shifts back to you.  When you have researched and familiarized yourself with how this all works, you need never feel impatient with anything that appears to be happening around you.  You are designing it, and you know exactly what the next step is.  Trust the process!

God is the builder of all things.  There is no foundation more solid than that.

I AM…Jodi
www.godisaverb.com/blog 

   The other day, I read a blog from Dr. Joe Vitale’s website about the “circle of friends” we all have.  He was talking about the importance of surrounding ourselves with positive people, if our goal is to live a more positive life.  While I do agree that it is very important to do this, I will also add that anyone who is working on themselves will see this happen, naturally, if they don’t resist the reason behind the inclusion.  Just moving away from those who don’t share our goals will not work.  First, we have to understand why they are there.  After all…those who are in our circle are there because we drew them in.  If you understand the Law of Attraction, even to a minor degree, you can see that is true.

In my own work, I have discovered that nothing is outside of the self…including our circle of friends.  The people in our lives are not there by accident.  We pulled them in–virtually created them, if you will.  I realize this concept is difficult for many people to comprehend, but I’ve seen a great deal of evidence to support it.  The people included in our lives are not randomly appearing.  Every single one of them is a part of the play we create.  We can choose to “fire” the friends that don’t support our journey, yes, but if the underlying reason they were there is not addressed, they will only be replaced with others just like them.

Looking at the people in our lives is extremely important.  Make a list of the people who consistently play a role in your life, and then write down the things you love and hate about each one.  There is so much information to be uncovered, in doing that.  No, not about them…but about yourself!  We should be asking ourselves what they are showing us about ourselves.  What is it we are to “get” from them, and what is it we are to “give” to them?  Only when we look at others as ourselves, however, can we finally release that energy from our experience.  Why?  Because they are nothing more than an extension of the self.

I had a person in my life that did nothing but cause me a lot of stress, anger, worry and grief.  For the longest time, I thought I could merely exclude him from my world, thus, solving the problem of having to deal with all of it.  It never worked.  He kept showing up, again and again.  I didn’t want this person in my circle of friends, and yet, I couldn’t find a way around it.  Somewhere along the way, I stopped in my tracks, realizing he was there because I invited him in!  I started asking myself the tough questions.  Who is this person?  What is he showing me about myself?  What part of me is being mirrored back…what part have I projected onto him?  What is it about him that bothers me so much?  Have I ever been that way?  What do I need to understand about this type of behavior?  What can I do to help him?  What does he need from me and what do I need from him?  I knew this relationship would never end until I addressed the “why” behind it.  Obviously, I created and drew in this person because I had something to gain and to give.  Resisting his presence was futile.  I had to accept it to stop it.

Once I spent some time understanding what the message was, I understood that was his only purpose in my world.  He was actually offering me a gift!  He was showing me something in myself that needed healing.  When I finally saw the truth of his presence in my life, I no longer needed for him to show up to remind me what I needed to work on in myself.  I used EFT to clear those negative energy patterns that I continuously drew into my experience, and by doing so, I no longer held that negative vibration that would draw in like energy.  Just like that…he left.  I haven’t seen him in quite some time now.

It’s nice to surround ourselves with wonderful, positive, loving people.  But often, the most important lessons we learn are shown to us by those we consider our enemies.  If we want only those like ourselves in our lives, then we must consistently behave in only one way.  In doing so, we will not attract the opposite behaviors into our lives.  Most of us are not quite to that point.  We still have “issues” that require our attention.  If everyone in your life is mirroring nothing but goodness back to you, then I congratulate you!  However, if someone shows up that really gets on your nerves, then look closer, not at “them,” but at yourself!   

And always remember this…the Law of Attraction is forever working in your experience.  If you are attracting those who you don’t want in your circle of friends, then you have to be emitting that same energy…resistance.  If you have nothing but positive relationships all around you, then your energy is only acceptance.  The vast majority of us have some of both. 

I suggest you don’t resist those who don’t share your beliefs and goals.  Just as Christ Jesus taught…those are the ones you should be inviting to dine with you.  They have something to show you about yourself.  Once you accept their gift, they will bid you farewell, but it will never be resistance that moves them out of your experience–it will be acceptance.

Love your enemies.  Appreciate what they are here to show you.  And at long last…know “they” are not separate from “you.”  Everything and everyone in your life is a part of you. 

Your circle of friends spirals out from you.  What are they showing you about yourself? 

I AM…Jodi
www.godisaverb.com/blog

     I picked up my mail late afternoon, yesterday, and was thrilled to find the new companion book, Try It On Everything, amongst the envelopes.  I rushed home to start reading it, and read through almost the entire book, last night.  I hope all those reading this will pick up a copy…it is amazing!

Dr. Patricia Carrington penned the book, and what an incredible job she did.  I was thrilled to see the elaboration on how and why Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) works, and the illustrations of how to tap are very helpful.  Of course, it also includes a chapter on each one of the participants, detailing the before, during and after events of our weekend in Connecticut.  I’ll admit it…I did read those chapters first; after all, I’ve grown very fond of the participants in the movie, and I wanted to see what new information on each was included in the book.  I was delighted to read what Dr. Carrington had to say about each person’s results, and was excited to see additional commentary from the wonderful practitioners who worked with us that weekend.  I think this book is going to do very well!

I am now embarking on learning more about the mind/body connection, because this is the missing puzzle piece I have sought for years.  I’ve spent a couple of decades researching the spiritual aspects of this life, but in recent years, I had an unquenchable thirst to know more about the science behind all this.  I took on books by Deepak Chopra and Gregg Braden, several years ago, and finally allowed myself to get past my intimidation of quantum physics.  Both of those amazing icons did wonders in pulling me into a deeper understanding of how “all this” works.  In doing so, I learned so much more than I ever thought possible!  I am now looking forward to reading books from Dawson Church and Bruce Lipton, as well, because I realize I need a lot more background on all this.  I am following Dr. Carrington much more closely, as well.  If you have not dipped your toes into the world of science in conjunction with spiritual knowledge, you are missing out!  There is a great deal of new information on the leading edge of metaphysics, and what is being discovered is going to rock your socks!

Because I have now become such an avid supporter of EFT (as well as a practitioner, myself), I really enjoyed learning more about it in this book.  Dr. Carrington gathered a lot of information from Gary Craig’s website, but she is no stranger to energy therapy.  She is a clinical psychologist, a widely-published author, an EFT Master, the originator of the EFT Choices Method, a former lecturer at Princeton University and an Associate Clinical Professor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey where she teaches medical students to view their patients as “whole human beings.”  With her insight and knowledge added to this book, there is a great deal of evidence to shore up the proof behind the healing methods of EFT.

One of my favorite excerpts from this book comes from the paragraph where Carrington is describing exactly what EFT is.  She writes:

     When an assault on our physical or emotional integrity occurs, whether this attack is physical or verbal or a result of our own inner fears and frightening self-talk, it immediately throws a STOP switch that can cause massive disruption of the energy system and even result in a form of energetic chaos.  It is that disruption, that sudden blockage of our normal healthy energy flow, that makes recovery from a trauma so difficult and sometimes impossible.  The disturbing fact is that until this energy blockage is removed and a healthy balance of energy within the body restores, there can be no full and permanent healing from the shock.  The body/mind continues to react as though the assault on us is still going on.

     This means that no matter how much we talk about a trauma, or how clearly we come to understand what happened to us and why (although all of this certainly helps) it is not until the energy disruption itself is addressed that the Qi energy can again flow smoothly.  Without a rebalancing of the energy system there cannot be complete healing. 

This is exactly what I’ve witnessed, again and again…yes, even in my own life!  Maybe you are like me–you have done a lot of inner work on the negative experiences of your life, but you found problems continued to plague your life.  Because I was raised in a metaphysical atmosphere, I was blessed to be able to work through a lot of issues with my understanding; however, there were certain things I simply could not resolve, no matter what techniques I used.  It was only when I learned about EFT that these traumas of my past were finally and fully healed.  What had been missing, all along, was the understanding and clearing of the residual energy that was lingering in my physical body.  Once that was cleared and balance was restored, I finally experienced complete healing.  How amazing is it to have this ability at our fingertips?

Try It On Everything provides the reader with case after case of healing proof.  Included are issues of fears/phobias, sports performance, weight loss, emotional issues, animals/pets, nightmares, depression, smoking, toothache, allergies, sleep problems, addictions, changes and Law of Attraction manifestations and much more.  If you have any type of problem or illness you’ve been unsuccessfully battling with (and who doesn’t?), this book is for you!

I was deeply honored to see that Dr. Carrington acknowledged my own book, Tapping Into Clarity, in the Reference section of this book.  It is astounding to see your name beside a published book when that has been a goal of your life.  It is even more amazing when the likes of someone like Dr. Carrington uses it as a reference tool for her own work!  I am humbled at the very thought, and it reminds me of how far I’ve come since incorporating EFT into my daily life. 

Being a published, bestselling author is my intention…and I know I am well on my way now, primarily due to what happened while I spent 4 days in Connecticut.  I doubt if there will ever be enough ways to express my deep gratitude to Nick Polizzi, Nick Ortner and Jessica Ortner.  Nor will I ever be able to extend my deepest thanks enough to Rick Wilkes and Dr. Carol Look…or to Steve Munn and Helena Johnson.  All of them were main characters in my play called life.  Every single day, I am grateful for that time we shared.  It forever changed my life in ways no one can know but myself.  My hope is to share this with as many other people as possible…to be the witness to the successes of others, as well as myself.

I know this–EFT has the ability to heal your life.  It takes dedication, but if applied, the results are amazing!  While some of the participants in the movie, Try It On Everything, returned and did not continue to tap, others did.  I have made it a part of my daily routine, and my life is getting better and better every day.  I’m watching my dreams unfold right in front of my eyes, and I’m realizing how quickly it is all happening now.  I did that…I did!  I took something that was offered and incorporated it into my life enough to make it a habit.  Why?  Because I saw and felt the rewards.  The 4 days I spent in Stafford Springs were only the beginning.  This path is different–it leads exactly where I’ve always wanted to go.

In my eBook, Tapping Into Clarity, I wrote:

  Stinkin’ Thinkin’ 

“The Point of Power is always in the present moment.  You are never stuck.  This is where the changes take place, right here and right now in our own minds!” 

Louise Hay–You Can Heal Your Life

You can’t always choose the thoughts you think, because thinking is done automatically, for the most part.  You have, after all, approximately 70,000 thoughts per day!  However, as you come to understand how powerful the energy of your thoughts is, you can certainly be more diligent about what you are thinking.  In fact, if you stop reading this for just a moment, and write down a few of the thoughts you’ve had in the past half hour, you might be surprised to see how many of them are not beliefs you want to perpetuate in your life.  What I would prefer you do, instead, is to write down all the great thoughts you had in the past half hour.  Your focus should be on those.  In this moment, you have the option of choosing to empower the good thoughts with good emotions, thus re-energizing them and planting them in your conscious awareness.  In fact, since our emotions feed our thoughts, and our thoughts feed our emotions, doesn’t it make sense to become more aware of what you are digesting?  Choose a negative-free diet!  Therein lies your greatest power.

“Great!” you say.  However you realize all that positive thinking stuff is much harder to do than that.  Something bad happens, along the way, or you just cannot get a bad thought out of your way.  Sometimes, the negative beliefs we hold in our thinking, if they continue to resurface, again and again, will not just go away by thinking happy thoughts.  Now what?  Should you just give up and continue feeling bad?  No!  It might serve you best to decide these beliefs are bothering you so much simply to get your attention.  They are showing up because there is something for you to know–to change.  I suggest you look at the ones that are holding you back from living the life of your dreams.  You must ask yourself where you first learned this is true.  If you are completely convinced it is true, then I recommend you do the following exercise.

Bring up the negative belief.  For example, let’s imagine you believe yourself to be ugly, and nothing and no one seems able to convince you otherwise.  Now, ask yourself where you first heard that idea.  Who told you that is true?  Perhaps you remember a student in elementary school who teased you about the way you look.  Can you recall who it was?  Sometimes, just remembering who told you that was true is enough to help you decide it might not be right.  After all, a 2nd grade student has a very limited perspective on beauty, and can only come from what he/she learned up to that point.  You might now recognize that person who said that to you was doing nothing but projecting his/her beliefs or feelings onto you.  He/she might have believed you are ugly (and where did he/she learn that?), but that was just one person’s opinion.  The memory may now seem funny!  On the other hand, remembering where you heard it first can also bring you to a place of anger or sorrow.  Give yourself some time to consider the earliest source of your belief.

Next, ask yourself if there is a possible opposite to what you believe.  In other words, is there an opposite of ugly?  Of course, the answer is yes!  The opposite of ugly is good-looking/pretty.  In the instant you can answer the question, you have hit on a gold mine of information.  If there is an opposite to whatever “truth” you have been accepting, then it cannot be absolute truth.  The opposite possibility also exists, thus it is also possible that you are good-looking/pretty.  Therefore, the idea you have accepted as fact is nothing more than a belief you learned and accepted as true.  It isn’t.

Third, ask yourself if anyone ever told you the opposite–in other words, has anyone ever said you are good-looking or pretty?  Come on…be honest!  If so, why did you not believe that person or those people?  What made you decide the person who said you were ugly was right? 

More than likely, the first time you heard that you were ugly, you felt a strong emotion.  It might have hurt you, or it might have made you angry.  As a child, you didn’t know what to do with that feeling, so you absorbed it.  Guess what?  It is still there!  Thereafter, all you heard was how ugly you are, even though other people told you it wasn’t true.  You could not hear the voices telling you it wasn’t true, because you were locked into the emotion and belief that you are ugly.  Worse still, if anyone else came along, at a later time, and again told you that you are ugly, those words merely reinforced that first belief, and now you are certain it must be true.  Stop and think about that.  Some people said you were ugly.  Other people said you were good-looking.  How do you know which one is right?  Both are opinions, based on the beliefs of the one who judged you. 

Finally, see if you are able to release the two sides of the belief you have been holding onto.  What if neither of them is right?  What if you are just who you are, and that is good enough?  If you are able, at last, to let go of this idea as “truth,” then you are now open to accepting the good that has been waiting for you.  You can finally understand that beliefs are nothing but ideas we agree with…and just as easily…ideas we disagree with.  Neither is absolute fact.

At the very least, doing this exercise will get you to question your beliefs about yourself.  Once the core issue is located, you can now use Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) to remove that negative energy, freeing you from the past.  You will finally be able to see yourself in a new light, and your future will suddenly become much clearer and brighter.

Right now…right this very moment…you have the option of changing your mind.  You can sort through the thousands of thoughts flashing through your mind, and pick out the good ones.  Focus on those!  Start to spend more and more time in a place of joy and acceptance.  And if those negative thoughts keep coming up for you…DO something about them!  If you allow them to continue sabotaging your joy, you are making a choice to push against all the things God Consciousness wants to give you.

This is your point of power–this moment!  And as Mike Dooley says in his daily ”Notes From The Universe” messages:

“Thoughts become things…choose the good ones!”

I AM…Jodi
www.godisaverb.com/blog

   I’ve been drawn to various situations, lately, all speaking about fleeting moments in our lives.  Whether a situation is labeled bad or good, it, too, will pass.  Everything in our mortal world does.  Mortal, you see, is defined as “liable or leading to death.” 

When we experience positive feelings, we want those to last.  We long to forever be in love, joy, abundance, and goodness.  Bad times, however, we wish would quickly pass.  It is only when we recognize it is our beliefs making this experience either good or bad we have any control over them.  As children, we are flexible.  We bend with the situations as they come into our lives; however, the longer we live on earth, the more brittle and rigid we become.  This unending state of resistance not only wears on the mind, but also on the body.  We lose our flexibility.

To be flexible, we have to lose our attachment to things.  We decide to allow the next experience to be what it is…nothing more and nothing less.

I recently read an article about Dr. Wayne Dyer.  He stated that before he wrote his latest book Change Your Thoughts–Change Your Life he walked into his office and handed the keys to his condo to his secretary.  He told her he no longer wanted the condo, and he instructed her to get rid of it and everything in it!

When asked about why he decided to give up his possessions so readily, Dyer stated:

     “I don’t know. I’m less attached to stuff, I know that. You asked me about specifics, and I just find that I see that nature offers us a solution to everything that we call a problem. If you can just find your own nature and live it as naturally as you possibly can and be in a state of awe over everything, it doesn’t matter where you are. It almost speaks to you and says, ‘There’s no reason to be upset about anything. It will pass.’ If it’s really going to pass, why stay confused by it and depressed by it. Just watch it go. It’s on its way out. That’s what I began to do.”

The only way to stay pliable is to put ourselves in the flow of acceptance as much as possible.  This means we stop pushing against those things which are not pleasing to us.  Pushing them away never works anyway. 

I spend a lot of time working with people on issues surrounding money…or the lack of it.  What I most often discover is how out of control they feel over the financial direction of their lives.  They are often locked into professions they hate, and they feel powerless to change.  And then, there are those struggling with relationship issues in their lives.  They want something or someone they don’t have, and they see no hope in finding a more loving state.  These people continuously draw in experiences which match their expectations, affirming to themselves that they have no control over the circumstances in life.  Add to them the group who struggles with disease.  Often, they seek medical attention for whatever ails them, but then they do little else to improve the prognosis.  They place their well-being in the hands of perfect strangers, and never realize how much power they have to heal themselves.  They do not see but one option.  The truth is, we always have choices…at least two, and usually many more than that, although the cry most often heard from these people is “I simply have no choice!”

Look again.  All your life, you’ve had choices in how to respond to the circumstances around you.  That ability is very much in your control because no one can determine how you feel but yourself.  Whether you struggle and fight, crawl into your shell and accept defeat, or decide to just let it play out, you, and only you, are in charge of how you react.  You not only have some control…you have ALL control over the events of your life, because how you react to them will determine what shows up in your future.

Whatever is going on in your life today–whether good or bad–remember that you have hundreds of choices open to you.  Which reaction will you choose this time?  Will you go with the flow or will you struggle against it?  Either way, the moment will be fleeting.  No sooner than you become aware of the situation you are in, you will find yourself in the next moment.  It can never be any other way in the mortal world because mortal reality is always marching toward death. 

The good news is that every death is immediately followed by birth.  You cannot move through one door without entering a new place.  Something fresh, new, untainted, perfect and good lies just ahead, if you walk through the door expecting it to be there.  However, if you drag your past into your future, you can only expect more of the same.  No matter.  Before you can get all your baggage unpacked, it will be time to move into the next moment.

You can choose to repeat bad experiences, again and again.  You can chain yourself to the same expectations.  You can choose to believe you have no say so in your life.  On the other hand, you can free yourself from past patterns, knowing you are in complete control of the prognosis of your life.  You can believe you have all control.  Whichever decision you make, just make it knowing that it, too, will pass.  Our mortal lives are created on a moment to moment basis, and how we feel in each one is staging the next one.  Will you pass through the door weighed down with your negative baggage, or will you walk through the door with the freedom and flexibility of a child?

Either way, you always have a choice.

I AM…Jodi
www.godisaverb.com/blog  

MANIFESTING MIRACLES WITH EFT!! (Emotional Freedom Techniques)

“SECOND SATURDAY” SESSIONS (The first session will be held on Saturday, September 13^th!) 

Join EFT-CC practitioner and participant in the milestone movie, Try It On Everything, Jodi McDonald, the second Saturday of every month, from 10:00 a.m.-noon, at the New Braunfels Unity Church of Practical Christianity for Borrowing Benefits sessions.  You won’t want to miss this!  All sessions are presented on a love offering basis! 

“You’ll be glad you attended,” says one participant, “because Jodi not only shows you how to let go of the problems and diseases in your life, but she also teaches from her own metaphysical background.  You’ll get much more than your money’s worth and we have a lot of fun, as well.” 

Emotional Freedom Techniques, sometimes called  “Emotional Acupuncture,” is an alternative healing method that locates the emotional cause behind the problem/disease, eradicating it by tapping on various energetic meridian points in the body, while focusing on the issue.  Over 90% of those who use this technique say it works!  What are you waiting for?  JOIN US!! 

What beliefs did you download in your youth that are still causing you problems today?  What are you attracting into your life, based on negative beliefs?  How big is the pain-body Eckhart Tolle speaks of?  What is blocking your good from coming to you? Are you ready to let it go NOW? 

You can email Jodi at jodi@godisaverb.com for more information.  See you there!!!!

   The human mind cannot distinguish between something that is actually happening in the present moment and something that either is being recalled from the past or is being imagined for the future.  In other words, time is irrelevant.  That is powerful information, isn’t it?  So many people do not know or understand that, so I feel very lucky that I’ve been privy to this knowledge.

Earlier this morning, as I was driving home from my daily trek to take Dayna to school, I flipped the radio station over to an “oldies” channel.  The song playing, “Three Times a Lady,” immediately took me back to a memory of a club where my husband, Billy, and I met and fell in love.  The club was in Wichita Falls, Texas, and was called Chapter 11.  Many, many nights, he and I would slow dance to that song, lost in dreamy, romantic love.  As I heard the song on the radio, I instantly pictured how we looked back then, and I recalled how deep and magical our love for each other was (and still is).   I was only 28-years-old then, and when he held me in his arms and our bodies pressed against one another, it felt as if we merged into one being.  The lights lowered, the DJ’s voice grew soft, and the song filled the atmosphere of the nightclub with wonder.  Our eyes would meet, sparkling with a certain knowing, and he would smile and softly touch my cheek, whispering how much he loved me.  He often called me “Lady,” and in fact, on our first date, that was the one word that reached in and captured my heart.  I answered, “I love you mostest,” as I nuzzled into the warmth of his chest.  Our love story is one most people have a hard time believing, because it was truly a case of love at first sight. 

It was mid-August of 1980 when I saw him for the first time since high school.  You see, we went to the same school, all those years, but he was 3 years older than I, and WAY out of my league!  He was one of the most popular guys in school, and was soooo handsome, every girl in that school dreamed about making him hers.  I didn’t even go there…I knew I would only be lost in a sea of clamoring females who were much more beautiful and experienced than I.  I was very shy and insecure in myself.  I used to watch him with his high school girlfriend–a beautiful, mature teenage girl, and I would think to myself, “She’s so lucky!” I could not have possibly known he would one day be married to me…it seemed unimaginable back then. 

That summer night in 1980, however, 10 years after I graduated from high school, was different.  I was different!  I was finally starting to come into my own.  I was out with my ex-husband, that night, which a lot of people found rather odd, but I was definitely feeling quite single.  My divorce was new…only about a week old.  I had suffered through so many years of pain, in that first marriage, but that was not my focus, any more.  I just wanted to know what it would be like to be madly in love with someone who loved me equally. I thought I would take a chance…go out to see if I could spot “Mr. Right.”  For many years, a group of us had been going to this club, every weekend, to share company and to dance.  I had no plans that weekend, and my ex-husband called to see if I wanted to meet up with him there.  I agreed.

I was spinning around on the dance floor to a fast-paced country song, when it happened.  Billy and some girl I did not know two-stepped right past my ex and I.  The two guys recognized each other and said hello.  I couldn’t help myself.  I stared at Billy as I asked my ex, “Who is that?”  He told me it was Billy, and then I remembered how I used to watch him in high school.  In that instant…just like that…I knew.  I said to myself, “He’s the one I’ve been waiting for!”

As the song ended, Billy found his way over to our table.  There were about 10 of us sitting there, and he asked if he could join us.  He had no date, that night, and was merely dancing with a girl he had met at the bar moments earlier.  Our eyes locked as he spoke to my ex and I.

“Well, it’s great to see you two are together,” he lied.  “I heard you were divorced!”

I quickly spoke up to explain we were divorced, and then I set about on a most devious plan.  I quietly sat next to each person at the table, and asked them to go dance for a while.  I wanted to be alone with Billy.  It took a while, but finally everyone was dancing, except my ex!  I encouraged him to go talk to a girl across the room who seemed interested in him.  I wasn’t fooling him, though…he knew what I was up to.  He called me out, saying, “I know you want to get rid of me so you can talk to Billy.”  I didn’t deny it.  He was hesitant, but he finally left.  Billy saw the opening and came back to join me.  Within minutes, he was asking me out, and promised he would call me during the upcoming week.  One of the most interesting parts of this story is that Billy was on the verge of moving to Colorado when he decided to come to Chapter 11 that night.  He had never been to that particular club before, but was desperately looking for something new.  He just wasn’t sure what it was.

The next few weeks were amazing.  Neither of us dated anyone else, from that day on.  We spent every moment we could find together, wondering why it took so long for us to find each other.  I fell madly in love, and was floating around, dazzled and dazed.  I was so touched by the compassion and the generosity of his heart.  He was not only gorgeous and intelligent, he was strong, supportive, funny and fun.  How did I get so lucky?  He even took my 4-year-old son with us on our second date!  Was this really happening so fast?  Could this love be the real thing?  It took him 3 weeks to admit he also loved me, but I knew it much sooner.  On October 25, 1980, only two months after we met, we were married.  No one thought it would last.  That was nearly 28 years ago.

Hearing that song, this morning, brought back a flood of wonderful memories.  I could feel that bliss again…that magical time when love is fresh and raw.  I fell in love again, as I remembered that skinny little blonde girl who spent 6 hours getting ready for that first date with a man destined to become her husband.  I remembered how she felt that day…excited, scared, and wonderful, all at once. 

I am so blessed and grateful for the love Billy and I have shared.  No one can tell me miracles aren’t real.

If you are looking for a wonderful new partner to share your life with, I suggest you put on an old familiar song that reminds you of being in love.  Let the music whisk you away into memories of loving someone so much, you can’t stand being apart from him/her.  Remember how being in love feels…the intense passion, the longing to share every moment and the inability to keep your hands off each other.  Remember the sparkling eyes, the smell and feel of the one you love, and the way you cannot possibly contain your smile and laughter when he/she walks into the room.  Do you feel that?  Yes…that is how you move mountains and call forth destiny.  The fastest way to find your perfect partner is to be in love with him/her right now.  And if you have your perfect partner, but you have forgotten what it feels like to be in love, just play that special song and let your imagination believe it is all happening right now.  It is.

If you want to win over the girl of your dreams, maybe all you need to do is call her “Lady.”  I fell in love with the words of Lionel Ritchie:

Thanks for the times
That you’ve given me.
The memories are all in my mind.
And now that we’ve come
To the end of our rainbow,
There’s something
I must say out loud.

You’re once, twice,
Three times a lady.
Yes, you’re once twice
Three times a lady,
And I love you.

When we are together,
The moments I cherish,
With every beat of my heart.
To touch you, to hold you,
To feel you, to need you,
There’s nothing to keep us apart.

You’re once, twice,
Three times a lady.
And I love you.
I love you.

Billy…I still love you most mostest!

I AM…Jodi
www.godisaverb.com/blog

“We all have the power to make reality.  Why make it inside boundaries when the boundless is so near?”
(Quantum Healing–Deepak Chopra)

Every single day, people step outside the limitations of “normal” to do something miraculous.  People live longer than ever imagined, incurable diseases disappear, the dead come back to life, athletes excel with new records, a normal citizen becomes a millionaire, steps are taken by those who were told they would never walk again, babies are born to mothers who thought they could not conceive and creative inventions propel us into the future with astonishing new products and devices.  It happens all around us, and yet, we do not see.  If we could compile a list of all the miracles that will happen all across our world today, we would be amazed at how many there are.  What once seemed impossible becomes probable.

Because we have programmed limitations into our abilities, we believe we are much less than we really are; and yet, there is evidence, all around, that our boundaries are self-imposed. 

In his book, Quantum Healing, Chopra gives us a few examples of how we become what we see.  Depending on where and how we are introduced and taught about life, we developed different abilities.  I was startled to read the story about the experiment with newborn kittens that demonstrates how quickly we accept our limitations.  He writes:

     Three batches of kittens were placed in carefully controlled environments as they were opening their eyes.  The first was a white box painted with horizontal black stripes; the second was a white box painted with vertical black stripes; the third box was simply left white.

     After being exposed to these conditions during the critical few days when sight develops, the kittens’ brains conformed to them for life.  The animals raised in a world with horizontal stripes could not correctly see anything vertical–they would run into chair legs, whose verticality had little or no reality for them.  The batch from the vertical-stripe box had exactly the opposite problem, being unable to perceive horizontal lines.  The kittens from all-white surroundings had a larger disorientation and could not relate to any objects correctly.

Chopra provides many other such examples, like the Tarahumara Indians who run 25-50 miles a day in high altitudes, without any discomfort (in fact, their heart rates are slower at the end), while eating a meager diet of almost nothing but corn, half of which is consumed in the form of corn beer!  There is another example given in an experiment where a group of mice are given a chemical to stimulate t-cells in the immune system.  While this was done, the mice were also exposed to the smell of camphor.  After a short time, the chemical was no longer given, and the mice were only exposed to the smell of camphor.  Just by smelling the scent of camphor, the t-cell counts of the mice increased.  Most of us have heard of countless such stories involving “the placebo effect.”  And finally, Chopra shares information of a condition known as psychosocial dwarfism.  Children growing up in homes where there is inadequate love sometimes simply do not grow up.  They induce a deficiancy of growth hormone from the pituitary, even though the gland is not dysfunctional.  Once these children are placed in loving environments, the condition spontaneously reverses and they catch up with their peers in size.

Growing up, I remember a story Mary Baker Eddy shared about a man who was tied to a bed, blindfolded.  The doctors around him pretended to slit his wrists, and then carefully dropped warm water on his wrists, mimicking the flow of blood.  Because the patient believed he was bleeding to death, he actually died!  Can you see how imperative it is for us to question what we have accepted as truth?

What all of this proves is that what we are taught and what we accept as truth has tremendous power over what we can or cannot achieve.  As a little girl, I was taught that physical ailments could be healed through prayer, so I was able to heal myself of many illnesses, over the years.  Society told me differently, but the immersion in a supportive atmosphere of evidence to the contrary kept me strong in my belief that it was possible.  However, the more I was exposed to the world of traditional medicine, the less I relied on my spiritual practices.  In time, I found it difficult to return to my former understanding.  It wasn’t until I had suffered through a lot of pain and illness that I picked up where I had started and began to incorporate those early beliefs back into my life.

Today, I understand the value of opening up to all possibilities…even those the general population puts into the “improbable/impossible” category.  I have seen far too much evidence that proves nothing is impossible!  I can see how this is done–by our beliefs!  Fortunately, those can be changed.

The most important understanding we must embrace is that we are Divine Mind.  Although the ego pushes us to believe we are separate from All That Is, it simply is not so.  There are no possibilities outside of all, and we are not just tiny components of this infinite knowledge, we are all of it.  We have access to every answer to every problem.  And, as my mother taught me, growing up, Divine Mind not only knows all the answers, but also knows all the questions.  What is it we cannot understand?

Chopra agrees as he shares this story:

     An English lady was traveling through northern India and was taken to the caves along the Ganges where yogis sat in deep meditation.  She was pleasantly received by one yogi outside his cave.  At the end of the visit, she said, “Perhaps you don’t leave here very often, but I would be happy to show you around London.”

     “Madam,” the yogi calmly replied, “I am London.”

Perhaps you have been living in an environment that spoke to you in words of limitation–can’t, impossible, won’t, shouldn’t.  I invite you, today, to open your eyes to unlimited possibilities.  All things are possible to those who believe. No boundaries…because you are the boundless.

Yes, we can!

I AM…Jodi
www.godisaverb.com/blog

   As the parent of four and grandparent of two, I’ve witnessed quite a few nightmares, in my lifetime.  It’s easy to know when your child or grandchild is having a bad dream, because they will not be able to contain the story within the sleeping mind.  Their tiny bodies will twitch, jerk, toss and turn, and often, they finally moan, cry or yell out in fear.  When this happens, most parents gently touch the child and call out for them to awaken.  This is the perfect analogy for what God Consciousness does in us, but let’s take a look at how we expect God to intervene.

When we have bad experiences in life, we ignore the gentle whisper that beckons us to awaken and recognize it was nothing more than a dream…an illusion.  We collapse to the floor and beg for the nightmare to be adjusted.  We pray and bargain for intervention.  This would be like asking a parent to slip into the child’s nightmare to change the dream.  It isn’t possible, because only the one having the dream is experiencing it as reality.  The dream is the creative illusion of the child, and it is not coming from the Consciousness of the Parent–no loving parent would never wish such suffering on the child so adored!  How odd is it that we want God to fix the dream rather than to awaken us from it?

When we awaken from our nightmares, and see it isn’t reality, we feel relieved.  For a while, we attempt to keep the dream alive, by vividly recalling how awful it was.  Those around us provide comfort in the reminder, “it was just a dream.”  We continue to share the story with others, dramatically describing all the horrible details.  It somehow helps to repeat the story, for a while, most likely, in an attempt to make sense of it or to insure ourselves it didn’t really happen.  However, as the day wears on, the dream is forgotten, and we no longer occupy our minds with the events that weren’t real.  A few days later, the dream is nothing but a memory.  If we were able to let it go, with little residual effect, it no longer disturbs us.  What is it that enabled us to move past the nightmare, releasing its power in our lives?  Awakening!

Once we are awake, we understand the dream was nothing but an illusion.  Our belief in the current experience as reality provides safety.  Because we don’t empower the dream further by acting as if it were truth, it cannot cause us any harm.

The next time life appears to be turning into a nightmare, resist the urge to beg for someone outside yourself for help in changing the illusion.  Instead, get quiet and  become aware of the soft voice calling for you to awaken.  Do not struggle to change the dream, but step outside of it and know it is not Truth.  Be still and know.  Your belief in unity with God Consciousness will be the voice that calls you out of the illusion.  You are safe, eternal, loved.

Every winter, certain trees lose all their leaves, as they fall into a deep sleep through the cold winter months.  Those who do not know better could easily assume they are dead.  However, as the spring warmth returns, a gentle nudge reminds the tree it is time to awaken.  Rejuvenated and rested, the tree emerges with glorious foliage and the sweet scent of flowering.  New branches stretch upward to touch the clouds, and the roots hungrily dive deeper into the moist, dark soil.  Birds fill the limbs with song and children giggle as they scale the branches.  What a pity had the tree not responded to the call to awaken!

Peter O. Erbe writes, in God I Am:

     Happiness is a choice.  There is but one choice:  Reality or illusion.  Reality is happiness and joy.

I see you tossing and turning.  I hear your moans and cries.  I cannot change your dream, so I touch your shoulder, gently, and call to you.

“Sweet child, wake up from the nightmare–the illusion of anything outside of God, the good.  You are safe and loved.” 

Open your eyes, and recognize it was only a dream.  Paradise is calling!

I AM…Jodi
www.godisaverb.com/blog