Ceremony Day came. The bride and her attendants would arrive together, assemble in order and enter the staging area with the brides father. I, of course, would enter with the groom and his 8 attendants. We chose to hang out behind the staging area and wait for our cue. The men milled around in nervous excitement, elbowing each other and the groom with inside jokes and “guy humor.”

Then, as if sensing the moment at hand, the men gathered around the groom, invited me into their circle, and we locked arms around each others necks in a tight huddle. All craziness quieted and though there was still humor and some ribbing, each man took his turn congratulating the groom and approving the bride, pledging his support and respect for the new marriage. One man led us in an ad lib prayer, prompting other men to add their own blessings for the couple. Some of the men and the groom shed tears. Me, too.

Though I was there as minister, and was included and encouraged to participate, these young, urbane men did not need help in speaking their hearts and declaring their love for their friend. Or in offering prayers. I have never been so impressed and deeply touched by the commeraderie and grace of men at a wedding!

Best Men, indeed.

Dear Best Men, I believe you are charged with a “holy” purpose: to stand with your brother as he openly wraps commitment  around his love and passion. You are not losing a brother, but gaining a sister. You become leaders of the community that is created by a wedding to support and uphold this marriage.

Bravo!

Here’s my method: Through meditation or focused breathing ask yourself, “What quality or characteristic could I develop or enhance in myself that would have a beneficial effect in my life and relationships?” Often Courage is on my short list, or Discipline, Creativity, Grace, Harmony, or…what comes to you?

Identify 3 words that summarize character building qualities you would like to focus on for the coming year.

Ask to see or imagine a color that represents the specific vibration for each of these words. There are many ways of working with colors or vibrations, but perhaps the simplest way is to imagine these colors pouring into your body from over your head. Allow your body to absorb these vibrations, so you can begin to work on them from the inside out.

After my meditation, I write these words down in my planner and post them on the fridge where I can see them often. I collect colorful images to represent and coordinate with these powerful word-vibrations.

The most lasting changes are made in the unconscious mind, so it is useful to feed your unconscious self with frequent reminders, like post-its for building deep memory connections.

Happy New Year!

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

A big shift in perspective often happens around the turn of the year, especially around the turn of the decade or century, or in this case, the ending of a major cycle in the evolution of consciousness. This is a time when we often try to prepare for the coming year by examining the year falling away behind us. Some of us set goals to accomplish what could not be done in 2011, or what we want or hope to do and have in 2012.

I would like to share a simple method of “goal setting” that seeks to honor you as spirit having a human experience. Goals for BEING, to prepare you for the doing and having.

This one comes from Mike Dooley. To boil it down, get HAPPY. Sit in a quiet place, eyes closed, breathing deeply, thinking “Happy”. Feel happy. Think of a person or a happy event to get started if you must, but your focus needs to be on the feeling of happiness, not the event or person. Let that feeling of happiness grow within you (a great exercise in itself). Allow your whole body and being to feel happy.

Now considering that you are overflowing with happiness, become aware of the feelings that flow, the feelings that tell you your are happy: joy, excitement, peace, enthusiasm, and so forth.

Allow these feelings, the emotions of happiness, to fill you to overflowing! Let the overflow of positive emotion radiate into some area of your life. Think broadly. For example: Health, Work, Relationships, Abundance…and let those happy feelings spill over into those areas of your life. If you notice a particular aspect within that category, you can have a secondary spilling over into that area of your life.

For instance, while filling the idea of relationships with positive emotional energy, you may become aware of a particular relationship, such as “my partner” or “my children”. You then allow the glowing, flowing positive energy to spill into the thought of “my partner” or “my children” rather than attempting to give energy or fill up the other person. Keeping your mind on generalities allows your energy to shift without your control, a good thing!

While radiating positive emotion into these broad areas of your life, you may also become aware of specific goals and ideas to follow in 2012. Write them down, yes. And know they are a consequence of being happy. The achievement of these goals will not make you happy, rather, these goals are a natural consequence of you BEING happy and pouring positive, creative emotion into your life.

Sometimes setting specific goals for amounts of money or numbers of things or the specific job at this or that company, can cause us to try to control the outcome of our actions or control the unfolding of the events that deliver what we want. Then, when something we want is coming into our field of reference, we don’t recognize the form it takes, and we may reject opportunities too soon. Working with positive emotional energy  is a way to get out of the way of creation, allowing a bond of trust to form between you and the universe, allowing you to be the universe you live in; to determine the emotional form of what you are creating while you revel in the mystery of how it comes. In this sense, Mike Dooley says, “HOW is none of our business!”

My prayer is that I grow in understanding of this challenge, and deepen my receptivity for this level of truth and wisdom. Sometimes my prayer takes the form of adding “Teach me to” at the beginning of every sentence and changing the you to me.

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First, to lay down some principles of energy work and healing with examples and suggestions for practice.

Subsequent chapters will spin off from the first chapter, describe various modalities of healing and offer specific resources and exercises.

For example, in a chapter called “Healing through Movement” the reader may find some basic ideas about the value and possibilities of movement from the spiritual/energetic and physiological points of view. This introduction would be followed by several articles from other writers (you), describing your work in movement, your personal experiences, healing stories and recommendations for a specific form of movement—qigong, tai chi, dance, running, yoga, spinning and so forth.

Other chapters may have titles such as: Healing through Touch, Healing through Meditation, or I may simplify with large categories like Body, Mind, Spirit.

Resource Index (with photos) of all contributors, their bios and contact information.

You are welcome to send a brief proposal, a 25-100 word essay describing what you would like to write about, due February 1, 2012. (optional)

Articles for consideration may be 500-3000 words in length. Chosen submissions may be cut down or I may ask you to give more. due March 1, 2012

Submissions must be in standard word format, no zip or docx files, please; double-spaced; including your name and contact information on the document. Please do not send a link to your article, send the actual word document article.

You do not need to be a “writer” to write what is important to you.

            *Topic should be related to your area of expertise and relevant to the book premise of Healing (see “What is Healing?” for ideas or perspective; write or call about ANY idea you have related to healing and personal transformation).

             *Include exercises, resources or additional ideas that may encourage readers to try your modality. Include illustrative anecdotes and personal observations or story to help the reader understand the power of your work or your experience.

             *Include favorite quotes (yours or someone else) and testimonials, if you like. Quotes must be fully referenced with name and source document (who said it and where you read it)

             *Include your name and title (if you have one), business name and business contact information, bio and 50-100 word blurb for your work, book, classes or anything else you feel is relevant.

Submissions may be something you have already published, as long as you own the permissions.

Submissions may be graphic or photo-graphic. You must be the creator/owner of the art work.

Submissions do not need to “fit” a category; you do not need to dream up a category. Just write what you love and I will figure out the format as I go.

All submissions will be considered. As primary author and editor I will decide which submissions will be included in this book. (see further comments in “What’s in it for you?”)

Send to angel@invocationforlife.com

Alive-lines: (instead of deadlines)

Optional Submission proposals (25-100 word concept descriptions) due by February 1, 2012

First article drafts due by March 1, 2012

Selection of articles and notifications will go out by April 1, 2012

Editing, additional writing suggestions and monkeying with stuff–back to you by May 15, 2012 for approval and final draft changes.

I hope to have a print-ready version, or maybe a galley, and certainly an ebook by June or July.

What healing is not: healing is not curing, not fixing.

Healing is not a miracle; healing obeys the laws of energy, physics and nature. Healing is natural. It  feels like a miracle.

Healing is entering into a new relationship with our self, our body, mind and spirit, for the purpose of changing the condition and function of the body/mind and to adopt a new perspective in support of that which we wish to change.

Healing is an altering of the rules by which we have chosen to live up to now.

Healing is an attempt to understand, rather than analyze; accept, rather than deny; reconcile, rather than resist; direct, rather than negotiate; align with, rather than oppose; a decision to find peace in the midst of suffering.

Healing is coming to terms with the wholeness of the predicament, the way in and the way out.

Healing calls forth our courage and spiritual maturity.

Healing helps us withdraw unreasonable and irrational trust in systems, people and things, and to move toward a more genuine trust of self within the Universe.

Healing brings about a state of being where we are more open to hear from our bodies, more discriminating about what we hear from others, more encouraged to make intuitive distinctions.

Healing often urges us to trust, or remember, our first and most basic feeling about our situation and to decide that our intuition has delivered not just a glimpse of possibility, but a track to run on.

Healing is to come more fully into the reality that we have created; to honor the value and wisdom of our situation given our set values, history and beliefs; to accept our power and capability as spirit having a human experience and to generate a new reality by directing our precious life force with those same creative abilities.

Healing is a return to wholeness regardless of the “facts” of our physical condition.

Healing is our transformation out of the compost of what is no longer life-giving.

• About the Money: I hope that sales will provide cash, to go along with my gratitude, recognition and acknowledgment for your efforts.

If the book is self-published, you may purchase copies at cost, sell them and collect the profits.

• You will be published! I will set up a blog to accompany the book, and all articles will be posted–those that don’t make it into the book and the ones that do. Further, your names and contact information, short bio and a paragraph about your work will be published at the blog and, if published in the book, in an index of resources in the book.

• A digital format of the book will include links to your websites/emails. You can be authorized to sell the ebook from your website!

• You will receive a copy of the published book!

Higher Hopes: Beyond these considerations, I hope for your joy and enthusiasm in helping to produce a truly fine resource for people seeking healing theory, practice and encouragement for their journey.

These Healing Book pages will serve to outline the perspective from which this book will emerge, it’s evolving format and time frames for completion.

Purpose: To celebrate our journeys and life work through the collaborative creation of a healing resource that anyone may access and find helpful on their path.

I am excited to finally be on this journey. I have been collecting my teaching notes, correspondences, thoughts, quotes and encouragement from others for several years now. The idea was to put it all together into a book of profound notions simply stated with simple practices based upon the principles of healing and the Laws of the Universe.

In the process of collecting and expanding on my notes, I realized this book would be much better, deeper in scope and perspective, if opened up to others first. Now this project seems to gain power as other healers have come forward to share their methods, modalities, perspective and philosophy behind the work, and some simple practices and resources to give the reader a glimpse into the power of the work.

I know you have something important to say. Some of you have invested years in your spiritual practice, your therapy, art, somatics, qi gong, psychic readings, gardening, dance, touch, meditation and so forth. Even if you have no ambition to teach or write, your method or healing story has something to teach others. You may be experiencing a practice that another person on a healing journey needs for their personal transformation. I hope you will join me in enlarging and connecting our healing community by sharing your thoughts, stories and hopes for humanity.

Let’s get started!

“In this book you will encounter many different paths to healing. I don’t believe in the one key, one thought to hold, practice or method to embrace, or thing to do to change your life and move you in the direction of your dreams. Rather, as evolving beings, we learn about ourselves through a variety of paths, by answering the call and gathering the appropriate resources intuited for each inward journey. The magic is not in the therapy, meditation, movement, or modality—the magic is in us and in our willingness to discover our self through whatever resources we feel drawn to use.” Angel Stork