Veterans Day!

So many deep emotions of gratitude and love for country and those who serve our country and protect our freedom.  For those who can provide resources with time and money please consider supporting homeless veterans who are served by soup kitchens and shelters in your town or city.  They are dignified warriors who have not coped well with life since returning from the battle front.  Another worthy cause is Honor Flight.  Search on the web and find one near you!  Their mission is to fly veterans to DC to visit the war memorials.  As there are 1,200 WWII Veterans dying every day and time is obviously of the utmost importance.  It is a worthy cause and I encourage you to open your heart to the men and women who served our country.

A cold November day in Kansas City and looks like winter is setting in for sure.  Don't think I mind though because each season brings a special gift of finding joy in the self.  A time for staying home and reading and writing which I love to do.  A time to spend more time on the computer to get the message out to others about worthy causes that you can support.  Now it's your turn and I want you to think of all the things that you want to do this winter while the air is still and quiet outside with snow blanketing the landscape.  Remember those times sitting in front of the fireplace with family and friends?  We used to have a "cuppa tea" and everything was suddenly roses!  My feet would be cold from playing skating on Dyke's creek.  Didn't have skates but my uncle brought me a pair of ankle high boots and a woolen coat one Christmas at the Army and Navy store in London.  My mother would take my sister and I up to London by train for the January sale and buy us clothes that my uncle paid for as our Christmas present.  Even if you don't have anything new to do (or don't think you do!) take a trip down memory lane.  Have a tape recorder next to the chair that you sit in an record stories from the past so that the next generation will know what life was like for you way back when!

New Year is just around the corner and I want you to prepare in a mindful way about what you want to change or improve upon in 2011.  Start the process of goal setting for the next year and use meditation and introspection as your tools to draw you in to your soul and learn about your true purpose in life.  Let God lead you and show you the way.  Be open to forming a personal connection to your Higher Power.  Think of that person as your constant guide and companion.  Always in heart and mind and longing to continue to merge with the one who leads you to God.  Your own heart will be your altar on which you can stand in your shining radiance, without fear of judgment or criticism.   Your heart will be made light and pure and you will want to spend more and more time alone in your heart with God.  I had the experience of seeing the light inside the soft caves of my own heart.  Radiant bright white light, with soft molded walls and a small green Chinese figure holding out his arms.  Smiling and radiating love and joy in giving and fulfilling my needs.  Cherish your heart.  Protect your experiences.  I share so that you will know what the journey is like and about ultimately.  Your union with God.

So on this Veterans Day we all share in our gratitude for those who were willing to die and for those who did die defending our liberty and freedom.  Life is precious and a delicate thing that any one of us can have taken before we feel prepared.  Know that you have time and opportunity to know God, become a loving and serving person for humanity, nature and all of God's creatures.  Be mindful of your diet.

I am a Professional Life Coach and require people whom I work with to meditate daily and follow a vegetarian diet.  That is a discipline and without it you are not going to achieve the ultimate goal of liberation.  Please contact me at lawrencerita511@gmail.com

No sorrow with the past.

Recently I have read a book about a wild life conservationist in Kenya, Joan Root whose life was dedicated to filming and documenting how the animals lived.  She was a mother to several orphaned wild animals at her home on the shore of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley.  She married young and as sometimes happens in middle age her husband chose to live with someone new and left her to take care of the home, land and animals that her life had been built around.

This story was particularly near to my heart because I too am from Kenya and used to care for wild animals when they were injured or sick as a child.  My sister and I took care of a gazelle or small animal that would resemble a fawn in America.  We fed the little creature with a baby bottle and were highly protective or it's environment.  We also took in a little monkey at the same time that we were staying on a friend of my parent's farm at Lake Rudolph near the border with Somalia. 

This was the first chapter in my life and my memories are still vivid.  I no longer can be around the people or events that were the norm for me yet even reading about similar stories brings me back to how my life started out in Africa.  There is an African saying that where you are born is your soul's home and that understanding makes it important for African American's who are decendants of slaves to revisit the site in Madagascar where they were shipped to the New World.  The ties with our soul's home are real and strong and cannot be brushed aside or put away in our psyche.

The difference now is that I am in terms of life events on my third chapter of the book.  After my father died of cancer in Kenya my mother moved us to an English village where she had grown up.  In my early thirties I moved to the United States and now am back in the Mid West where I started.  I have a grand son and roots here now.  Although I have a brother in England with whom I contact on a fairly frequent basis I will stay in the United States as long as I can.  The past becomes like a dream and it doesn't bring the pain and anguish that it once did.  This is the beauty of a spiritual life.  You shed all the ego's heaviness and attachment to people and objects.  You are completely freed from pain and that was my experience.  Living in the present is a joy because whatever happens is like watching consciousness passing by or an old movie being replayed.  There is no attachment to anything now but mindful effort to do things to the highest standard that I possibly can.

Sorrow is part of the ego.  It is natural and a person would feel compassion for anyone who feels sorrow.  My Teacher has pointed out that when we have a choise to transcend and allow whatever happens to us happen without any movement of feeling in response to the outcome.  This is harmony and balance taken to a higher level.  We can mindfully equate different areas of our lives and bring them into balance and harmony.  Taking that a step further we learn to see all as equal and that keep the balance sustained during times of trial and tribulation.  The term that my Teacher has used is Equipoise.  This is the goal of yoga to be in harmony whether ourlives are looking good or not.  When we get to the point that we are not saddened by the times when we don't have what we want - usually for me that has been money we keep the joy inside.

I mentioned before that I have been told to look upon people who cause difficulties in our lives as Angles.  If we are not exposed to people who are able to arouse some negative response inside they are doing us a favor because we wouldn't be aware we still had those issues left inside.  All the things that cause disequilibrium are attachments and you will be given opportunities under the Grace of a Master to free yourself from them.  You joy is yours and that feeling of bliss is the fruit of your spiritual labor.  Treasure what you have and don't give it up when someone acts in a way that is distressing to you.  Keep your mind focused on the area of the heart and you will reach that same level of bliss that you will experience in meditation when you are wide awake and engaged in life.


I recommend that you meditate daily, follow a vegetarian diet and journal.  You will soon make progress and when you meet your Master for spiritual initiation you will be truly ready for the journey to liberation.

I work as a Professional Life Coach and my passion is to assist people to develop spiritually and from that optimal space inside attain their goals in life.  Please feel free to contact me at lawrencerita511@gmail.com