The Call

In the words of Marianne Williamson: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday, July 13, 2009

Regarding TUT - aka The Universe

I am wanting to share our message from TUT (thoughts become things) today.

Before you read it, I have to tell you a couple of short stories.

First, we are at Tuckaway Farm once again and for the last couple of days we have been watching a white-tailed kite hunting for food in the pastures across the road. We look out across a huge expanse of pastureland reaching to the far hills. He hovers and then moves on, hovers and then moves on, but then if he spots something, he dives to the ground. When he or she is successful, they fly back to the south and way up the ridge and into a grove of oak trees (yep, I just went to check with the binoculars - a grove of oak trees!). It has been fascinating to watch the hunt and the bird's long flight home and then disappearance into the trees. We've actually had conversations over the past few days about the whole process of the kite's flight.

Second: this morning we got up really early, thanks to Luna the pup, who just wants us to get up early and be with her. After we wrote in our journals, we shared some of our thoughts. Before I go there, I must tell you that we drove up to northeastern Washington, an hour north and west of Spokane on July 3rd to check out an 8 month housesit assignment. It was not as advertised; no cell phone service, only dial-up internet available in the area, a water bed, a 30+ year old mobile home (nice but..... full of ruffles, pink and turquoise and absolutely full of stuff and no place for our things), a white sofa and carpet which was really strange since it was so far out. And, there would be times we would be snowed in by feet of snow. The lady is a retired school teacher who was married to a Native American. He has died and she can keep her home as long as she lives and then it will revert back to a family member in the tribe. She practically begged us to come stay while she goes to Mexico for 8 months. She even had the place staged for the showing. We went there really excited, based on the description of the place and we didn't really believe there could be only dial-up anywhere. When we got there, we were crushed, after driving that far; but like I said, thank goodness we went because we might have accepted the assignment based on the description and photos. Sooooo, after getting that excited, we started talking about our ideal situation as we drove back to Portland. We each described what it would be! 8 - 9 months, possibly year to year, starting in October so we would have our summers free and in a nice place with cell phone service and high speed internet. We even said in our ideal housesit there would be no animals so we wouldn't be totally tied down and there would be a place for me to paint.

Please keep in mind that in all of the years that we have been signed up with this housesitting service there is rarely an 8 month housesit anywhere. So, on Saturday morning I get up and check email, where I get notices about housesits in the areas I have listed. There is a notice for an 8 month housesit starting in October in Sutherlin, Oregon which is 10 miles north of our storage unit. (We didn't include being near our storage unit but guess someone was looking out for us). I wrote to the people immediately and then we talked on the phone. We'll meet with them at 5 PM tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday. It sounds like a really nice house, 2 years old, 4 bedroom, 3 baths built by the husband, who is a contractor, up on a hill overlooking the valley and only 2 miles out of the little town of Sutherlin and there are no animals to take care of. We hate to get our hopes up but we are very hopeful and excited about this. These folks go to Mexico for the winter each year, leaving in October and returning by June.

We were blown away by this housesit assignment assignment in Sutherlin since it is exactly what we asked for. We spoke our wishes on July 3rd and never thought about it again. This is an 8 month housesit that starts in October each year until these folks move to Mexico permanently in a few years, cell phone, high speed Internet, no animals, the house is grand, the deck is grand and the view is spectacular and there is a place for me to paint. They have kept their piece of property mostly natural - a very small yard below, small flowerbed out back and 2 houseplants to take care of and they told us that we could leave for as long as a week from time to time if we just let their friends in Roseburg know. Did we play a part in manifesting this housesit? How did this show up right now?

L was really blown away by the whole thing. So, we talked about our Mannatech business and how maybe we work too hard at trying to MAKE things happen. Remember, the "how" is none of our business? If we manifested this housesit, how do we tap into that? We both agreed we needed to get back to reading the books about how we create our lives with our thoughts and the law of attraction. We even spoke specifically this morning about needing more "faith" and less "how" in our lives.....that faith comes from the spiritual side and "how" come from the ego and we can see how this applies to all of life and not just our Mannatech business. And, is Mannatech our true calling? What is for our highest good? Where is our heart in all of this? These last few days have been such a rich contemplative time for us..... slow and easy. It is just what we needed. We were so beat when we got here and then we had a lovely day of rain Sunday so we were forced indoors to stillness and quiet.

Before we decided to put everything into storage, we had reached a point where we had to generate more income, and it wasn't coming from Mannatech, or go into more debt and we simply weren't willing to do that. Douglas County has a huge unemployment rate and poverty so our recruiting efforts here have been challenged. We were talking about all of this when friends contacted us, out of the blue, about doing some work for them up in Oregon City, and then when we shared about that with our friend down in Grass Valley, she asked if we would come do some work for her. We had scheduled this farm sit back in May. Our friends in Oregon City insisted on paying us way more that we billed them for, the lady in Grass Valley has done the same and we are going back to paint her big barn and house, these folks on the farm paid us more than we agreed on and our management company returned our entire deposit on our apartment, which we understand never happens. It just feels wrapped up like a present by some divine plan that we are in the center of.

We don't want to go back to that place of judgement and failure around our business that we left behind when we left our apartment and "went back to work". We have signed up new people and renewed people and even had 85 points counting toward the incentive trip to Costa Rica before we left the apartment but it seemed like we never could get the train out of the station. We are totally resisting going back down the rabbit hole. We feel a positive, fun, easy energy at play in our lives right now and we want to stay in that place. And in the past 6 weeks we have had 2 All Star sign ups, 2 members and a retail customer - through no effort on our part. Are we making up the story that we have to be "working at it" for this business to grow? Apparently, we aren't an essential part. We have been telling that story and trying to make it true - work hard, make money.

With regard to our businesses, we do feel that our income will grow. How? We don't know. We ask, Are we in the wrong place? Are we talking to the wrong people? Do we say the wrong things???? Who knows. We are trusting in a knowing, that will show up at some point. We can almost feel it, if we stop trying so hard to come up with the right answers. If we stop trying to make something happen. It seems to be coming in pieces. It's like a dance. We take a step and the Universe moves, too.

So, here we are still in the conversation about all of that and we opened TUT. (We try to read TUT together each day) I am wondering about things, like what happened with TUT this morning? James Redfield would say it is a sign that we are in the flow. We really felt like this was a special message, just for us, especially, after watching the bird and our conversations of these past few days. The whole thing seems amazing.

I am reading a wonderful book by Marsha Sinetar. A few words from that - "Each day requires a bit of transendental dreaming, as John Muir put it. The workplace of assembly lines and pat answers is evaporating. Success now depends on thinking with a "whole brain", a full awareness. As suggested this is developed gradually - verbally and nonverbally - often through classic meditative disciplines, nature experiences or "peak" moments.

Author Anthony J. Wilhem touches on this issue in theological terms saying that our labors, (i.e., work, or struggle to find answers, etc.) become burdensome because we're divorced from our inner kingdom. Having lost ourselves, we lose our way.

Now our message from "TUT... A Note from the Universe

Yesterday I watched a small bird, flying very fast, disappear into the canopy of an oak tree. So dense were its leaves that it was impossible to see what happened next, though I can tell you it remained inside. I wondered how the little bird found its opening through the leaves at such a speed, and then managed to gently align its fragile body on the branch it chose to land upon, all within a fraction of a second. Not to mention the impossible to imagine flying maneuvers required: the banking, the curling, the vertical and horizontal stabilizations, the deceleration and landing.

Memory? Calculation? Not in that tiny brain. Instinct? Maybe, but how does instinct know which way the branches of a tree have grown when no two are the same?

Larry & Charlotte, that little bird just knew. It had faith, in spite of not being able to see how things would work out, that if (and only if) it stayed the course, the details would be taken care of; that an opening would appear and a twig would be found. In fact, had she slowed down enough to carefully and logically inspect the tree first, the prudent thing to do, she would have lost her lift and fallen to the ground.

Kind of like reaching for your dreams. Neither memory, nor calculating, nor instincts are the deciding factors, but faith coupled with action.

Tallyho, The Universe

WARNING: Larry & Charlotte, staying the course is NOT the same as clinging to a HOW.

Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ® TUT

We wish you many blessings and miracles.
With love from Tuckaway,
Larry & Charlotte