Monthly Archives: October 2016

Fail Forward.
One of Jack Canfield’s Success Principles is to fail forward. What does this mean? It means to regard all events in your life simply as feedback. Yesterday I attempted to launch my first free phone informational series. One person showed up on the call. I was still thinking about failing forward and going ahead with the content of the call. I was using a new conference line that had the potential to record – but when I tried to start the recording nothing happened. And then, while I was talking to the one person who showed up on the call – I got disconnected. I got back on the call and talked with person who really just wanted to know more clearly what I was trying to create. It was great feedback. There was something missing in the messaging. People might not be getting on simply because they didn’t know what they were showing up for. Like being invited to a birthday party and not knowing whose birthday it is. I thought perhaps, maybe, even though the recording wasn’t working, someone else might show up. At this point I wasn’t really talking about the content I had intended – but it was still well worth anyone’s time in regards to understanding the importance of enrolling others in understanding the “Field of Dreams” you were creating. Then it happened. I got kicked off the call again. At this point my inner saboteur was having a field day!
Demoralized I got on the call one more time – the person on the call was ordering lunch, but still on the call! We agreed to talk privately and I ended the call. So I thought about all the things I knew going into the call. I was expecting maybe four people – with hopes that others would show. However I knew scheduling could be a challenge – so I had fully expected that people might try to tune in for the recording even if they could not make it in person. Once the recording technology for the website failed me – I realized that I could still record the content and make it available later. This would even give me an experience of creating my first “audio” program. Still a win. Somehow though, it didn’t feel like a win. Failing Forward felt like failing. Just failing. No forward at all.
So I reminded myself that to Fail Forward you have to take the lesson the experience offered and run with it. I also reminded myself that despite everything my “ego” wants me to believe – I am not my body, I am not my thoughts, and certainly not my successes or failures. So, if I was going to see a benevolent universe at work what would I find. What I found was that I believe in the content of the work. That the preparation for the call helped me solidify the concepts behind the Hero Factor. I also discovered that three other people had hoped to get on the call – two couldn’t because I had already stopped the call by the time they would get on, and the last one was hoping to listen to the recording. Then I remembered that a fifth person had also been intending to listen to the recording – having told me ahead a time she would not be on the call. What I realized, as was gently pointed out to me by a number of people who responded to my facebook post “The Skies Clear but my message was not” was that the message was clear enough to generate interest by five people… and that an audience of five is a place many others would love to have. In fact, an audience of five would have exceeded my own expectations. Simply because this was me trying something new. Doing something different than I have done before. Growing in the face of my own fears. Taking the risk to do something I have never tried to do before. So maybe failing forward isn’t really accurate. I was, in fact successful on many levels . I will be transparent in saying – it still feels like failing. The tendency to second guess – what if I had just stayed on the call longer. The way the brain tries to catastrophize – I’ll have lost my ability to get the message out because I didn’t stay on the call five minutes longer! That’s just the saboteur though. The one we all have. Trying to convince me that living in my safe zone is easier. It is, but it is also a space of emptiness. So here I go. Failing Forward transparently. Because fear and disappointment – those things don’t make H Factor Moments. However, if one allows them to, they actually can help fertilize the heart and fortify the mind for stronger and more well defined action. Being the Difference is not about getting it right. Being the Difference is continuing to do the work to provide yourself and others the opportunity for growth and transformation. Which also is how you transform fear and disappointment into a full speed failing forward H Factor Moment.

I was providing group supervision when a therapist stated that one of her friends had committed suicide over the weekend. Over the previous four weeks I had been following along with Ruby Gangadharan and Amina Mahkdoom as they went over Four Practices of True Happiness on Amina’s Adventures facebook page. The four practices were friendliness, compassion, delight, and non-attachment. All of the four practices had a way of interweaving. Can you listen to another without having to contribute your own story i.e. fix things, persuade, cajole, advise and let go of any need to compare yourself to them or their experience. To simply let their story unfold in front of you. Can you assist others without needing to be right or elevate yourself or be faced with a feeling that their suffering has inconvenienced you or is less than and to offer that support without doing so to make ourselves feel better or to be recognized and validated? Is it possible to simply experience the joy of another person’s good fortune, excitement, or joy and to tap into that in order to celebrate their delight with them without having to “take possession” of it in any way. To be inspired without envy, to laugh with instead of be annoyed when someone is in the throes of delight that we have no direct part of? To simply recognize that we are one with them and have that be enough? Can we practice neutrality when someone takes an action that spurs us to dislike or even antagonism? Can we not only hold a sense of neutrality, i.e. allow ourselves to simply be as they are without having the “difference” between them and us be a reason for upset, but can we recognize that the frustration or anger or upset that this person is “causing us” is in fact the lesson in front of us? Can we see that their expression of the world is something we ourselves may be trying to disown or perhaps simply something for us to accept without having to make the other person bad or wrong? Could we go one step further and to fully accept the person. We do not have to agree with the behavior they are engaging in – however could we separate out the behavior from the person and provide unconditional acceptance for them as a fellow being with an expression of gratitude for them enabling us to evolve and expand our own consciousness and to close patterns within ourselves that otherwise would simply further contribute to a negative escalation? And in doing so perhaps even engage in a full transformation?
These were the practices we had been discussing over the previous weeks. The focus and practice of each of these four areas in turn over the previous weeks – friendliness, compassion, delight, and non-attachment were things – were very present when the disclosure was made. As such there were things I knew – I did not need to make the person in front of me feel better – I simply needed to be present and hear what she was expressing. I did not need to take her pain on inside of me – for it was her pain and her journey – better that I walk beside her. I did not need to have a “right” answer to validate or affirm my importance. She chose to disclose in the group – I simply needed to normalize for the group, permission for her to share what was needed so that if there were any lingering judgements in the room, they could be dispelled and everyone could affirm the importance of her disclosure knowing that the space there would also be present should, in the future, they too desire a space to express their story. I asked a few questions of simple inquiry. She shared what she wanted, shed a few tears and then we moved forward. The exchange took about ten minutes. At the end of it I affirmed who she was as a human being and asked if there was more she wanted or needed. She indicated that no, it was simply that because we had created mission statements the week before, she had a moment of feeling that she had failed her mission statement with someone close to her. The conversation shifted naturally as we talked about the importance of recognizing our own limitations – and that when someone is depressed the hardest thing for them to do is often to reach out. And yet, for their friends, it is not that they would not reach back – but that each of us is busy creating our journey. We will reach back to help another if we know it is needed – but ultimately we each have our own journey. We can choose to accept the choice of another – even a choice to end their physical journey and accept their choice, or we can perseverate on what we can no longer change. We have a choice to accept ourselves in that as well, or to focus on our limitations. The four practices interweave and dance with one another. They show us the importance of both offering support and love without the subtle price of being right or undertones of jealousy, and they also provide us with a way to step through the hardest moments of life – when another person we love dearly has made a choice that ends in their suffering or even death while we feel helpless. In these moments we can still engage in happiness. We can respect the unfolding of their story and its meaning with Friendliness whether they are alive or dead and trust that they are making the best choice for them. We can hold our hearts open in compassion and whether it is their heart or spirit offer up our prayers and blessing and even our actions should it be possible and should they want our assistance recognizing the strength both they and we ourselves gain in that moment of freely given support and open ended love. We can delight in their smallest victories as they move forward on their path and we can delight in the meaning of their life if they have passed on – celebrating all that they touched and provided no matter how they may have stumbled. For even their stumbles of headlong falls were simply opportunities for us to treasure them all the more. And finally we can step back to neutrality and accept that their journey, no matter what their current result is, even if that is death. We can be grateful that we walked alongside a reflection of ourselves and we can love their being without judgement. We can reflect on all the lessons of their life and bring those places unfinished in us to completion as we accept all that the person in front of us is or was. Namaste. I bow to God within you. Love. Joshua
For more information on Ruby Gangadharan go to: http://loacoaches.com/ruby-gangadharan For information on Amina Mahkdoom go to http://www.lunchwithcinderella.com/

Spirit Translations: A Spirit Translation differs from a Soul Translation in that a Soul Translation focuses on an individuals essence, values, and path through life. The Spirit Translation focuses on their own specific relationship with the divine. Below is the First Spirit Translation I wrote.

Corners Unseen

Attunement
They surround her pass by her
A glimpse of a Gryphon
Dragons Fairies
A Gnome – An Owl – A Panther
She feels them around her
As well as the ascended masters
The Goddesses
Morrigon and Kryon
Some are there simply as “sponsors” if you will
The others there inspecting her
Assessing her
There is really no question
It is more for her to understand
The gift she is being given
Not the gift itself

This is simply the recognition of it
The tuning of her own unique gift
To the universal harmonies around her

It is completed
And in a moment
All of them disappear
As energy shoots into her
Through her
Around her
Buzzing

Jagged as it smooths to the curves of her energy
She is tuned to universal harmonies
She is the key
Recognizing there was never a lock
Simply a misperception
That somehow she was separate
She stands now
Among the forty – the fifty – the endless
Healer and Guide
For those still not attuned
For those who have not yet realized
We are the key
To an endless universe that doesn’t have a lock

Beneath the Nightfalls
She moved into the farm house
There in the corners of a field with no corners
For empty grasses have no corners
Still yet they do
Stood the gnome

Wondering silently
At the gentle power now residing within
The house he rarely stepped into
A power not quite aware
Yet with awareness growing
In corners of a mind without corners
For minds have no corners
Still yet they do

He saw the owl hunting
Hunting for the hidden wisdoms
Beneath Nightfalls
When the waters of shadow
Rushed silently through his fields
He had watched for centuries

At times in the Nightfalls
As he watched he saw hoow the Goddess herself
Rode the owl
Now larger by far than an owl ever is
Now the goddess riding small between
The owls wings

Size and shape did not really matter
In a field with and without corners
A reflection now
Of the mind
Residing within the house

So the Gnome
Threw up a flag of parley
Between one Goddess and another
Coming to meet beneath the Nightfalls
On Owls and treading through invisible paths

For the Gnome
Tasked with a protection of lands
Tasked with the protection of the lands spirit
Felt the awakened spirit
Further wakening

Knew within was an ally
To the fields with and without corners
To the fairies large and small all at once
To those the fairies served
The Morrigan

So it was that Athena and Morrigan met
As they had done thousands of times
As they met for the first time
Athena seeing the Wisdom
Of unleashing power

Seeking to serve
Through a path
Through fields with and without corners
Beneath the Nightfalls

Where wisdom flowed seen and unseen
By Owls and Gnomes

The Divine
There is a place
Where Puff the Magic Dragon still frolics
Where Artemis dresses in purple
To inspire another generation
As the Huntress
Where the Gods and Goddesses
Go to play

This place
Among all the places of the sacred
Is where she goes
An incredible empty space
Filled with amazing entities
The Playground

It is here she has stumbled across gods
Whom had she looked down at their feet
She would have realized were playing hopscotch
Whom had she looked at their hands
Might have realized what they held were not
Lassos but jump ropes

Nontheless the Gods and Goddesses here
Are no less powerful
No less regal in their bearing
No less aweing, perhaps in fact more so
For here more than other places
Aspects of their eternal innocence
Can still be found

Here in a place of Eternal Power
They fill up the very air around them
Here the Morrigan meets with her
In the height of her power
For where else but the playground
Would you expect a Queen of Fairies

Here in the Playground
She was presented gifts
After adventures in places beyond
Completing tasks
To extend the healing
Of lands and spirits in this dimension and others

A Golden Ball of Energy
A Raven’s Feather
Things of wonder
Mysteries to unfold
Upon her return
From the Playground

The Owl
The Owl has always been with her
Perching above the doctor
Perching above the bed her mother held her in
Perching at the stairwells as she ran down them
The Owl has always been with her

The Goddess
Owls are the Eyes of Athena
The Owls do the choosing
Yet it is Athena who confirms
Placing within each
A filament of wisdom
As the Owls themselves
Burst from her thoughts
To seek their manifestation
She is a daughter of Athena
Born of a precious mix
Of desires and needs
To carry forth
A wisdom of ancients
In which the spirits
And gods
Are one
Not Divided
From mankind

Loki
He took her beyond the playground
To the places where the realms
Of Gods are not eternal
For he holds kindred with the Fey
In spirit
If not his spirits blood

That he shares with Giants
The giants were laughing as she entered his home
A Scandinavian Chalet
Large enough to house giants
Large enough by far
To hide in the dreams of corners

He saw her there
Standing in the Corner’s Dream
As she had learned to do long ago
Quiet and unseen
However Loki has always been a master
Of seeing things and beings Invisible

So as the Giants told their jokes
And laughed in ways that shook
Creating reverberations in the air
He took her to the window
In the part of the house
That left the Play ground

He pointed to a building that was crumbling
“They don’t believe anymore, can you help?”
And there
In a moment
The giants fell into silence
Their large bones falling into the gaps of the earth
beneath the crumbling foundations of the building
to fill them

Childhood: Before the Playground
Her mother an Italian Catholic
Her father a simple mechanic
Working six days of the week
More interested in being a good father
Than a good Catholic
Stating simply that he was not going to go church
The one day he had to spend with his family.

The Priest came by to speak with him
Leaving with his blessing
“Live a Christian Life
You don’t have to come to church”
And so the only services she found
To commune with spirit were her own

Listening to the wind growing through the trees
Listening to the rivers flowing through the grasses
Listening to sunlight coaxing shadow from its refuge
Listening silently in the unseen corners of fields
In the open spaces where no corners exist

The Owl and the Horse
As she turned to the fields
With no specific direction
The Horse emerged
From the open expanse
Always there
Yet unseen
Until
There
As the shadows grew longer
In her first winters
It was apparent
She would need
Support on her journey
A way to travel
Through the times of shadow
With safety
And when able
With speed
The horse lifting her spirit
Onto it’s back
The owl looking ahead
In the darkness
To guide their path

The Angel and the Owl
While the Owl perched above
Her Guardian Angel
Simply stood beside her mother
As she came into the world

The Angel and the Owl
Always beside her
At times flying besides each other
To see what was coming forward
Through time to met her

To prepare her spirit
To prepare her heart
For the journeys she would take
Both outside of the corners of her mind
As well as outside the confines of her heart

The mind and heart
Like fields
Open, endless, without corners or confines
When all is said and done
At least once the flight of Angels and Owls have been completed

So they prepared her
To move beyond the idea
That the divine was more than an inconvenience
That occurred on Sundays
A disruption to a happy family life of a working father

Calling an Angel
She liked to stand unseen in corners
It was comfortable
She was as good as it as any gnome
Still she was never unseen
By Owl and Angel

Her life coach was already well attuned
As she herself took her first steps
So with her Life Coaches coaching
Talking on the phone they made it a three way call
Adding her Guardian Angel

Her Angel spoke clearly to them both
She only caught glimpses of the worlds
Her connection still unclear
Her coach caught every word
Told her things about her life there was no way for her coach to know

Ariel
Unseen
Ariel
Unseen
Drew
Breath
With
Her
The
Moment
She
Drew
Breath
With
Wind
And
Water
New Zealand
Nine years in New Zealand
She lost the corners of her mind
Becoming instead an open expanse
Never ending
Always knowing
The Horizon was simply the beginning
Of the Playground
It was the Maori
That opened her mind and her heart
Allowing her to escape the confines
Of a Known World into the Unknown
Challenging her assumptions
Digging beneath her original foundations
Leaving large holes beneath her
To be filled with the bones of Giants
Waiting for their resurrection
Athena
Unseen
Fighting
Only
In
Defense

Goddess
Of
Reason
She
Inspired
Defense
Of a
Native
People

To
Open
Up
Pathways
To
Mind
And
Heart
Wisdom
The
Path
To
Spirit
Nurturer
She had first glimpsed the realities of corners
In hearts and minds in her role as a nurturer
She found herself intuitively seeking out
The unseen places
Where people hid themselves
Between the Shoulds of their upbringing
And the Coulds of felt expectations
She could sense how the students she worked with
Had backed themselves
In with the bones of giants
Slowly losing belief
In the myths and fables of their own lives
Slowly losing belief
In the power and possibility
Of an endless playground for manifestation

She knew these places well inside of herself
She understood the Brave Front so many of them presented
As they told their stories
Seeing beyond it
With the Wisdom of Owls
With the Compassion of Angels
Flying beside their spirits
She worked with them
To transform the shoulds and coulds
Into possibilities of their own choosing
Showing them the light
That always exists at the very center
Of the forest
Crossing the bridge
Into a rising sun
As yet unseen

Joy of Giants
Once she had lived a life
Once she had lived many lives
In which
All that was allowed to her
Was what was given
With no control
Or choice
Over those things that most mattered

In this life
Her foundations challenged
By the struggles of a people
Losing control
Over their lives

She felt her guides
Pushing her
To step beyond confines and corners
Created in other lifetimes

In this life
She has been charged
Not just with finding the limitlessness of her powers
Which she still defines as finding the limits of
She has been charged
With inspiring others
To find that they too are beyond the definition
Of a world which would bury giants
Instead of tell jokes
And laugh with them
To hear and feel the very air
Reverberate with their joy

12th House
She has never been attached to the realm of Midgard
She is the squirrel running through the branches of Yggdrasil
She is the very branches travelling through the nine realms
She is the Rainbow Bridge
Upon which the Gods and Goddesses travel

She is the light of the bridge escaping
Beyond
No longer distracted by a need to support
Even them
Instead leading the way to places still more fantastical

She is the manifestation of that light
In circles of trees and mushrooms
She is the portal to different dimensions
Beyond the nine known
As planets
Circling the light of a sun

Loki and The Morrigan
Each feared
For their purpose
To inspire
An Authentic life
For championing
The Sovereignty
Of the Soul
To believe in Giants
All that must be done
Is step into an authentic life
All that must be done
Is to Uncover one’s own divine gifts

This then is her purpose
To lead people
Along the invisible paths
To Unfold the Corners
within themselves
That do not exist
To find their own expression
Of an authentic life
Guided by the Divine Gifts
They as yet
Do not recognize
As being limitless
Within themselves

Triple Goddess
She was the maid
Hiding in corners
Wondering and Wandering
Seeking a playground when no one around her
Had any interest in playing

She has been the matron
Nurturing the hearts, minds, and spirits
Of others
Showing them that corners
Are also myths
That playgrounds are possible

She is the Crone
Stepping up and out
Of this Universe
Beyond care of reputation
Ready to play with whoever shows up
Dismissing those who don’t as simple illusions

Crone
The arrival of the Crone
Was one of joy
An opportunity to step into
Full Authenticity

She placed the gift of moonlight
The magic of tides
Of spirit, heart, and mind

She placed the gift of cards
The magic of patterns
Of spirit, heart, and mind

Into her hands

She placed the gift of Joy
To live could be simpler
Living in the moment
Letting things go by

Showing her

In this life
And those previous
She has always had control
Of what she needed control over
Her spirit, her heart, her mind

Shadow of the Crone
Understand
The Crone always has
What is needed
Yet often little more

It is easy to forget
The simple life
The Crone demands
Also has hidden gems
Left in places
Only she can find

There is never a wanting
In living with the crone
Unless one forgets
One always has
What one needs
Forgets the treasures hidden
Like a squirrel for the lean times

For even the Crone
Enjoys her luxuries
Turning to Fortuna
To allow her
To let go of the simple life
Time to time
To provide her
A fortune and comfort everlasting

Keys of the Divine
The Fairies entered her life
As she took residence in her house
Her mother’s influence
might not have left her a practicing Catholic
Still the fairies that came
To expand her work
Were Italian

The Italian Fairies
Lilly, Bella, Isotta,
Gabby and Galinda
Came both to expand her abilities
And as The Morrigan’s emissaries
To keep an eye on her progress
To influence her
Ensuring she continue moving
in the right direction

The Farm Gnome
He stands in the background
In the Corners of the field
Waiting to be called
Showing up to help with the garden
To keep the lands around her in order

He is an expert
In finding corners in the open fields
And unfolding them
Into open spaces
Expanses of the playground
As yet undiscovered

There the unfolded expanses
Dragons come to play
The Fire Dragon
Filling her with inner heat
igniting power
Inspiring her along her path

The Fairies continuing to build
With her
As she provides them with tributes
Building towards something bigger
With their Queen
The Ball of Golden Energy
The Raven Feather
Strengthening the limitlessness
Of the gifts within her

And all around her Owls

Her own owl
Always there
Her guide to her Akashic Records
To uncover with her
Threads of Athena’s Wisdom
To unlock the mystery
Of her path

One with keys
But no locks

Her Angel
With Her Grandmother
Bringing comfort
And love

Her Horse
The steadfast companion
For her to rest upon
While ensuring
She always
Moves
Forward

Unseen Angel

In this
Lifetime
Her Angel’s
First word
She heard
Was

“I’ve been Waiting”
She
Knows
Her angel has had to wait many lives
For Her Angel and her have been together now
Across lifetimes

Learning and growing
From one another
With her angel
Preparing her
For
This
Life
Time
And
More
To come
As each lifetime
Her power
Simply
Grows