https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zv03cVFH_s

Imagine this….me driving home from a beautiful day at the beach….this song comes on my Ipod and tears start streaming down my face.  Why you ask?  Oh it’s one of those stories with colorful yarn that makes up a beautiful blanket that heals.  Gladys Knight brings me way back to real good times as a kid singing with my Dad.  Her beautiful soulful voice goes deep into my bones and shakes me to the core every time I hear her sing.  She is like an Earth Mama to me.  Another reason for the tears is because it reminds me of where I am at right now.  I have had  some recent conversations with people about shifting from fear based thinking into trusting the Universe.  Just this morning a friend and I were discussing this process and how crucial letting go of worry is to the flow of peaceful waters.  The analytical mind wants to figure out a plan for EVEYTHING.  I know, I have done this since I was a kid.  My typical joke is that I was creating a resume in high school; although it’s not really a joke because it’s true.  When you are more of a Type A person the concept of trusting ANYONE never mind some spiritual entity is a ridiculous idea.  Anyone who knows the pain of being Type A (and I say pain because it truly is) knows this to be true.   While some people are flying by the seat of their pants and bouncing through life, the Type A individual is planning the next achievement they will strive towards; usually just after they have completed an achievement they were working on.

Lately though as I become oldER  I am just spent and worn out from it all.  I am so OVER myself.  It’s almost like what alcoholics speak about in AA…..I have the gift of desperation.  I have worked hard and gotten to places.  I have then worked even HARDER and gotten no where.  Peaceful waters….yeah I want some of that.  Where are they? Costa Rica?  Cool let’s go, I’ve been wanting to go there for a while.   I tend to travel impulsively so I can make that happen soon if you want.  But wait a minute do we really need to spend all that money and take time off from work to find the peaceful waters?????

The answer is NO

That is the trap we all fall into.  We tend to the think that the more peaceful waters are somewhere over the rainbow instead of right here, right now.  Peaceful waters flow within when we take the time to slow down and be present. They are a state of mind that exists where happiness lies.  And happiness…where is that?  Everywhere all the time. Happiness is a choice.  It is something we have the option to choose whenever we want.   If this does not make much sense it could be because you are American.  Us Americans have been duped into believing that happiness resides in something, somewhere or in someone outside of ourselves.  This is the lie we are sold so that we will continue to consume and supposedly help our country continue to prosper.  But really happiness doesn’t cost anything.  All it takes is the willingness to see the possibly and openness to choose the option.  It’s like the smell of the rose on a day that feels like crap.  Or the moment you take to laugh at the pigeons do their walk around the city when you are feeling stressed.  The sun as it shines on your face or like Gladys says “where gentle breezes blow.”

Peaceful waters exist all the time.  Someone said to me recently that the proverbial peaceful waters within feel like the warm blanket a mother puts over you to tuck you in at night.  It feels like nurturance.  Yes, that’s exactly what it is.  For me it’s the feeling when I hit the beach, put my chair in the sand and smell the ocean air.  I can call to mind that image anytime and know intimately that feel of release.  I don’t necessarily need to be there to know that it is exists within me right here, right now.  It is also the feeling I get whenever I make a cup of tea for myself, when I sit down to chat with you all, when I hug a friend, when I play with a dog that passes me by, when something or someone makes me laugh so hard it brings tears to my eyes or when I think of my Grammie.  It’s that place within where everything is always ok all the time.

Life is one massive transition these days but that’s just life.  The earth moves, the tides flow, change happens.  Nothing is static.  One of the things that I am most grateful for about my work as a therapist and coach is that it gives me an opportunity to both share my growth with others and to be inspired to grow by my clients.  It is a precious gift that the Universe has given me.  The fact that I get to do this is life giving and life sustaining.

As I close I will leave you with Gladys’s words of wisdom.  Take a walk with me….

Come take my hand and walk with me for a while…

Let me teach you how to smile

And I’ll show you where gentle breezes blow

I’ll take you where peaceful waters flow

If you let me I’ll take you where peaceful waters flow…

Come and walk with me

We can go where peaceful waters flow….

Now if the sunshine hurts your eyes

Then it’s time for you to realize boy

Beyond this a moment exists in a better day

and if you let me…. I’ll guide you

I’ll always be beside you right there beside you

Reaching every step of the way

Come take my hand walk with me a while

Let me teach you how to smile

and I’ll show you sky’s where gentle breezes blow.

And I’ll take you where peaceful waters flow…..

I’ll take you there where peaceful waters….

Come take a walk with me and we can go to where peaceful waters flow….

Cheers my friends….Be at Peace Within:)