This Little Light of Mine...Let it Shine.

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine." Do you remember that song?

I was thinking about it last night and told my son that he needed to sing it every day as his theme song. We've been talking about when he let his "light become dim." He's my dancer, and he used to get on stage and shine so brightly you couldn't take your eyes off of him. Then something happened, and he turned the dimmer switch. Maybe it's a developmental stage or maybe he was trying too hard to fit in at school -- to be like everyone else despite the fact that he is so different. In any case, something caused his light to dim, and now he's finding the dimmer switch kind of stuck. He's working on loosening it up and getting his light to brighten up a bit again.

Have you ever felt like that, like you've dimmed your light for some reason? I surely have. Sometimes I think I've dimmed mine to not outshine my husband. Sometimes I think I've dimmed it simply so people won't see the real me and, like my son, think I different and, therefore, not like me. Sometimes I think I turn my light off rather than be seen, because it's easier to remain hidden in the dark than to shine my light and be seen and to be judged -- to have someone say I'm not good enough.

There are lots of reasons to dim our lights. I'm tired of having my dimmer switch on. In fact, I think I'll tear mine out and put in a simple on/off switch. I'm going to suggest that to my son, too. What about you?

Then I think I'll get some good ol' Duck Tape and make sure my switch is taped into the "on" position.

You know why? Because it's time for this little light of mine to shine...and I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

If you all join me, imagine what a bright world this would be.

I'm Back wtih Post Shavuot Thoughts

After more than a one month absence, I’m back…sort of. I feel a bit like I’m only half here, since my life seems just a bit crazy still. You see, while I teach people how to live life fully, mine has just a bit over full lately and totally unbalanced. I admit it; all I’ve been doing is working.

Since I last blogged, I’ve reorganized and republished my Kabbalah of Conscious Creation booklet. I’ve prepared for a trip to Chicago, where I gave two talks and led one workshop. While there I did manage to visit two friends, whom I stayed with and another woman I knew and whose horses I used to ride. (I visited my favorite horse, too.) I also recorded a CD of meditations. I came back home to finish writing a book proposal and two articles and to finish helping my new webmaster totally redesign my website. And there have been small projects interspersed within these bigger ones.

My husband has also been traveling – even while I was in Chicago – and my kids have gotten sick (me, too), and my son has graduated from middle school, and we’ve had a huge wildfire near our house, and we’ve had some yard work done. The house, as you might imagine, is a mess inside and out. Thank goodness, my husband is still working at his new, new job, as I like to call it (the one he accepted after he accepted and the resigned from the other new job), so I can finally hire my every-other-week housekeeper to come back and help me clean up the mess inside the house.

All this to say, I’m sorry for disappearing for a month, but something had to go. The blog turned out to be that something. But now I’m back. But…

I missed Shavuot, the holiday when we celebrate receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai. I was hoping to get around to writing this blog on Monday so I could say something about the holiday, but now it’s past. With my book, The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation about receiving as well as giving, it seemed appropriate.

Instead, I received information to help me open to receiving on Monday. That seemed appropriate. I had a session with a woman who is clairvoyant and does energy work from a distance. She helped me clear some old issues that were blocking me. Interestingly, it took me back to a past life with an old boyfriend. (Hi, Eddie…) Who would have thought not being chosen in this life time would relate to being chosen in another? Or that either of these incidents would some how be affecting my ability to have my work chosen by a publisher? Well, according to this woman, it was all energetically tied together. And in the process of going back over my teenage years and my relationship with this young man, I received an understanding that previously had evaded me. I received an understanding I didn’t even know I needed to have.

I also let go of a piece of my past, making room for something new to enter – a little bit of future.

And, interestingly, this information I received did tie in to Shavuot. For on that day when the Israelites were given the Torah, they truly became the so-called Chosen People, entering into a covenant with God. And as I was told, I, too, on this awesome holiday, was asking to be chosen, opening myself up to being chosen, and allowing my work to be chosen.

My book, which I released in its proposal form to my agent after my session that afternoon so some publisher might choose it and me, will offer readers a way to open to receiving. In fact, it also offers me a way of opening to receiving. And in my session, I was reminded that sometimes we have to open our hands (stop controlling) in order to receive. And sometimes we have to let what is in our hands go so that something else we want can be placed there instead.

So, I guess in a kind of round about way I’m writing about Shavuot after all. I’ve rambled a bit here and there, wandered like the Israelites in the desert, but I think I feel I’ve gotten clarity in the last month and begun to see my path a bit more clearly. After finishing the proposal, I see where I am going with my book project. I see my work clearly. On another front, I see the need for balance in my life clearly. I know where I’m going. I’ve received helpful information, and I’m open to receiving more. I’m also ready to be chosen for the task I desire to take on.

They say that all Jewish souls in existence today were at Mt. Sinai when the Israelites were given the Torah. Maybe that’s why this feeling feels so familiar.