written by Juli Somers

I sometimes imagine what it was like being pure spirit before taking this body – at peace, at one with all – then getting thrust into this dimensional plane of duality. Alongside the bodysuit comes the immersion into a deep forgetfulness of your spiritual nature and your connection to All That Is. Finally one day you decide that it is time to get off the Ferris wheel of unconscious living and you make the commitment to awaken.

Most likely if we remembered the truth of who we are and where we come from right from the start we would choose to forego some of our experiences. As a result, we would miss out on the soul lessons necessary for our spiritual maturity. Let’s face it – from a solely physical perspective it is hard to understand why things happen as they do.

It can challenge you to your core to have faith in a higher order when faced with the current troubles and devastation. Yet it is faith we must have to rise up in this time being presented to us now. It is a time to bring forth in our lives the truth of spirit – unchanging and infinite – amidst all the flux of physical life.

How do we step into this next phase of our spiritual potential? The handholds that we have depended on in the past to guide us through our transitions personally and globally are simply not there. We are not only creating a new world as we go but simultaneously living the effects of the karma of the old one. We are being given the opportunity to recognize ourselves not as victims but evolving participants of a massive shift in consciousness.

With the tragic aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, one can feel helpless with how life on the planet is manifesting. Our bodies are designed to return again and again to homeostasis just as the earth, the larger body in which we all reside, is trying to restore a balance in a world that has grown destructive. What is the answer? To remember ourselves as spiritual beings and use our energies in ways which are healing.  We always have a choice in how we focus our energy. Imagine the solution and the healing happening, instead of being mesmerized by the problem. As Gandhi stated, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Now is the time.

This is the time to deepen our body and spirit communication. We are indeed spiritual beings having this physical experience with more inner power than we often realize. It is from the invisible realm that we have manifested what we perceive and experience in the visible world. If we want to change things in our lives and in the world we need to go back to that level of the invisible. This is the level of thought, desire, prayer, and visualization – basically the level where it is all about how we focus our energy. Therein resides the power of change.

Both meditation and prayer have been scientifically documented to change brain wave patterns. When we choose to pray or meditate or even just reach for the positive interpretation of what is happening, we are invoking the awareness of God consciousness into the scene. The best part is each of us can make this choice in any circumstance at any time. We are never stuck! To bless something instead of judge it is an expression of the love that you are. Where the ego will judge, the spirit will always want to go for a healing response. When we choose to bless what is challenging our peace, that positive God-filled energy has a ripple effect and helps to counteract all the negative happenings everywhere.

I had an experience recently where a wonderful opportunity seemed to be placed on my lap. I explored it, went forward with it, and then it seemed to disappear as quickly as it showed up. I observed myself go to an old feeling of disappointment and get caught up in my mind seeing the whole thing as a problem. Then I realized it for what it was – an opportunity to believe in myself as a creative spirit. As a spiritual being infused with the power of life moving through me, I always have choices about what I want to experience. As I surrendered my judgments to what was happening – awakening to the consciousness that somehow this was an opportunity despite appearances – suddenly I saw many doors available to me. I now had freedom to choose how I wanted to proceed. What a reminder that at any moment I can create something new instead of getting stuck on the thought that there is a problem. It was a tremendous healing for me.

It’s time to break through our collective amnesia so we can embody our spiritual knowing and peace in these chaotic times. We offer many workshops, classes, and services to support you in cutting through the illusion that you are powerless with what is happening around you and within you. It is time to be the change we wish to see!

written by Juli Somers

“It’s not about having any particular experience. The practice is about opening to whatever presents itself”  – Joel Goldsmith

A student asked me in a class recently what I thought about affirmations and intentions. It was a wonderful question to reflect on. The trick to using a compass is to know the direction you want to go from where you stand now. It helps to have a destination in mind otherwise you won’t know when you get there. Same with intention; it is good to have an idea of the direction you want to move in. The bible tells us, “ask and you shall receive”. The trick is to ask – set your compass in the direction you want to go – and then just walk. Trust the way life moves you.

Ever notice that sometimes you set an intention and then what shows up is vastly different from what you were intending? There is always a reason in the invisible realm as to why we are led in seemingly the wrong direction or why you have to go through a pond full of frogs before the prince or princess comes along. It is, after all, a souls’ journey and our souls are always nudging us to grow. Those nudges can take us far out of our intended direction. But they always lead us closer to Truth.

I may consciously affirm something until I am blue in the face but if the program running my subconscious isn’t aligned with that, then I’ve merely succeeded in getting a blue face. Say you are trying to lose weight so you affirm to yourself ‘I feel light in my body’. At the same time maybe there is a belief in your subconscious that tells you that you are fat. A positive affirmation may help you to feel better and possibly shift negative thoughts. That’s a good thing. However, to create lasting change you must heal the roots of that defeating message and change it to loving yourself.

Remember those old slide viewers? You could pop in a slide and look through the viewer to see the picture. Energetically we are always influenced by these “pictures” or experiences from our lives that have formed our sense of who we are. That message that you are fat may be there because your mom didn’t like having a chubby baby. In order to change what has been created you have to remove the old slide from the view finder that influences how you see yourself or the world. To just cover up the old with a new pretty picture won’t heal the invalidation inside.

I once had a friend that would frequently be on very strict eating regimes. Whenever we went to lunch, she would look at my food and commence to tell me all the reasons why the food was bad. Finally I had to tell her to stop putting her pictures on my food. I didn’t believe what she believed so my food was innocent of all that judgment. All my food wanted to do was provide me with sustenance and suddenly it was getting told how bad it was.

This same person was big on affirmations. What I would often notice is that her inner vibration didn’t match the thing she was affirming on the outside. Yes, she wanted to be there but her energy was nowhere near accepting that affirmation as truth. There are many stories of people who win millions in the lottery and then lose all of it within a couple of years. If the program in the subconscious says lack then lack is what has to return.

A good starting place is to bless whatever it is you want to change. Bless it with the knowing that there is a reality beyond appearance where all is perfect. With my above example, the key would be to love your body just as it is; it is the vehicle you have chosen to fulfill your soul purpose. A true affirmation moves you from wanting something different to allowing yourself to be in love with you exactly where you are.

There is nowhere to get to but enlightenment. Life is constantly offering us opportunities to awaken. The good news is you once accepted the unwanted program and you can now decline it. The ultimate affirmation is that God is All That Is. And in the meantime, may all of our intentions and affirmations lead us ever closer to living that truth. Come take a class at the Center and learn how to move out some of those limiting pictures with amusement.

Reverend Juli Somers is the Director of The Center For Inner Truth
She can be reached at 920-4418 or revjuli@newmexico.com

Whatever shows up in our life is our spiritual practice.  It isn’t as if one is exercising their spirituality only when praying or meditating or repeating a mantra and then just a regular person in day to day life. As you become more aligned body and spirit, you see that the experiences you are undergoing, no matter how awful or catastrophic, are the opportunities given to grow you spiritually. It is our spiritual lives that actually bring to us these experiences.

Sometimes, the mind wants to convince us that we are doing something wrong “because otherwise life would be peaceful or only good things would happen.”  If we were always comfortable, we wouldn’t have the impetus to grow – we could sleepwalk through life and believe that we are merely here to enjoy a physical existence.

It is exactly the sand irritating the oyster that creates the most precious pearl. And it is exactly in the handling and transcending of life’s most painful situations that we can surrender to a greater Presence within ourselves. It has been called the ‘peace that passes all understanding’.

I have had my share of painful losses the past couple of years. After repeatedly swimming in the pool of my emotionality from these losses, I am finally reaching the shore and seeing that the pearl is indeed forming. Most of my life, I have struggled to understand why we lose everything in this life and what remains beyond those losses. My mind screams, “What’s the point?” Often I have approached each new loss with that attitude and the limited understanding of a wounded inner child and a seemingly small, small self.

I think the whole time God has been patiently coaxing me to surrender: “Quit trying to control the outer life – just surrender and you will see that there is something greater moving through this”. To get to this Presence, requires a going into the pain. One must face that instinctual avoidance of what can feel like a black hole and quiet the mind of its relentless limited story. You have to walk into the scary room, sit down and say, “Okay, show me what you’ve got. I am willing to be with you”.

When we don’t surrender into the pain and allow our experiences to move through, to change us and deepen us, then they get stuck inside; perhaps showing up later as an illness or a pattern repeated. One’s power is diminished and life can become an experience of just being a body instead of allowing the essence of God to become manifest within our lives.

Last night I had a dream of being with my mom. My mom died over a year ago. In the dream, I was lying on the bed with her as she was dying. I was crying and asking her not to die. I looked down at my feet right next to hers on the bed.  I showed my mom how much my feet looked like her feet. We are both walking our paths. I felt awash in a complete connection to her, completely loving and loved. Though I grieved for the loss of her in this dream, I felt no separation just an acceptance of the cycle of life and death. I woke up feeling light and healed. The pearl is becoming more and more polished.

We are here to know God within us. End of story. To be able to gaze upon the astounding beauty that surrounds you even in the midst of the greatest losses allows you to be filled with what remains. The paradox of the impermanence of this life is the medicine that gives us the experience of what is eternal. There is incredible peace and love at the bottom of that black hole.

Reverend Juli Somers is the Director of The Center For Inner Truth.  She can be reached at 920-4418 or revjuli@newmexico.com.

Written by Juli Somers

“I’ve had many troubles in my life, most of which never happened” - Mark Twain

At times I slip into the noose of believing that something that is happening in my life is bringing me trouble. My mind will give me a convincing argument that I am powerless to untie this particular Gordian knot. Soon after, my emotions begin to play me as a pawn and move me along their chessboard. Before I sink into the inner quicksand of illusion, I remember that I can choose how to be in relationship to what is happening in my life.

I reestablish myself as merely the observer of the story and consciously reframe the situation as an opportunity instead of a punishment. I am inspired by what Emmett Fox called the ‘golden key’. When the mind gets caught in focusing on what is wrong, he suggests reflecting on all the qualities of God; God is all powerful, always present, all loving, etc. Everything is possible with God. And as importantly, God is within me. When I get there, then I know that all is well.

I recently had to deal with what felt like trouble in my life. My computer started to die just when I sat down to work on this issue of the newsletter. I was quickly and with resistance introduced to the term ‘blue screen of death’. In the past with scary computer issues, I reacted with overwhelm and felt helpless in knowing how to proceed. I would imagine the worst; all the money I would have to spend for a new one, the newsletter would be late, I would lose my work, etc. I watched as my mind was having a field day creating all kinds of negative scenarios. Not once did it think “Wow, this is great, I have to get a new computer”.

This time, I decided that I wanted to do it differently. Instead of walking down the old familiar road, I decided “I can do it”. I chose to change my self perception from one who didn’t know what to do to someone who could handle it. So, I told the negative thinking that it could take a hike, looked fear in the eye and showed it the door, and decided that I would be completely taken care of with my computer problem.

As I shifted my vibration, I spontaneously began to reflect on all the things I felt grateful for in my life, this, too, a golden key and always a good practice. Doing that made me feel better and lighter. I decided that not only could I tackle this problem, but that something good was going to come out of it as well. I decided to expect a miracle. Wow! I was starting to feel really good. And just by changing the thoughts running through my mind!

I was first inspired to call a few people to ask for their ideas. From that move, I received my next step. And the next step flowed from there. I ended that day feeling very loved and supported by the universe. That was a miracle of sorts. As the days go on, I keep getting more – the old computer is hanging in there enough to finish the newsletter, and a beloved friend is unexpectedly making a donation of the new computer. And I know I received these miracles because I consciously decided that whatever was going to happen in this situation would be good.

God works through each one of us. We can’t ever go where God is not because God is everywhere. We are all God experiencing God. I can feel like a victim to what is happening in my life (and sometimes do) or I can see that the bigger part of me is asking me to further wake up to my divinity.

Each of us really does have everything we need to handle whatever shows up on our doorstep. Of course you do because, after all, you created it! There is something in whatever challenge you are facing that your spirit decided would be the perfect circumstance for growth. Sometimes you just have to move out the resistance to change and decide that all change is moving you toward something better – despite any appearances of the contrary.

With so much fear on the planet and all these shifts happening these days, it is a great time to practice what the spirit already knows. Life is an adventure and the light is always there prompting you to open further. It greatly helps to have energetic tools with which to navigate energy and life. I feel profoundly grateful for the tools that I learned and that we teach at the Center. Come learn some tools to help you ride the waves of change!

Reverend Juli Somers is the Director of The Center For Inner Truth. She can be reached at 920-4418 or revjuli@newmexico.com

Written by Juli Somers

“But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well” Luke 12:31

Grace happens in so many ways.  Recently, it happened for me in the middle of the night.  I was in between waking and sleeping when my mind started to kick in with it’s litany of worries and attachments.

I was detached enough from a typical awake state to consciously observe these thoughts. Eventually, like the sun breaking through the clouds, I watched those limits surrender themselves to a greater awareness.  It was as if God reached down and changed the channel for me.  At that point a wave of inspired, positive thoughts and a pure knowingness of Truth began to move through me.  It was grace.

Where my mind was getting stuck in limits from my past, part of me was aware that I was just replaying the same old story.  And frankly,  I was tired of hearing it.  I had read those chapters too many times. Reminds me of a line I love from a Leonard Cohen song, “there is a crack in everything and that’s how the light gets in”.  And there I was in the middle of the night focusing on the crack when the light finally caught my attention.

What was that incoming message of inspiration in the middle of the night for me you might ask? From this beautiful state of grace, I was shown that I could have anything I wanted.  That I was truly the creator of my experience via my thoughts and emotions and whatever was playing out inside of me would quite simply play out in my life.  I understood that my life was the mirror of my consciousness.

I was shown that the things I struggle with are a result of my perception of myself and life.  Change my perception and my life changes.  And I could also see how part of me knew I was choosing the limits! Perhaps I thought it was the edge that my soul needed to grow from, I don’t know.  I became conscious of my unconsciousness if that makes sense. With that realization, the Light began to shine brighter and I accepted that I could change any and all of these perceptions.

Whatever shows up in front of me in this world of appearance is the effect of what channel I am tuned into inside of me. Limits? Okay, here’s the ‘I Can’t Have This’ drama playing out in my life.  What if I change the inner channel to…Endless Possibilities? Suddenly, I am watching (and living!) an entirely different show.  My choice.  I can create what I want.  I just need to take the responsibility for where I am choosing to focus my energy.

The greatest gift from that glimpse into the eternalness of who I am was being shown that, truly, I need only focus on my connection to Source to be given everything. My focus on the ‘cracks’ in my life or on what my ego is saying isn’t good enough in my life, is a waste of my life force. All this time the Light was just waiting for me to notice it. It’s my ability to have the Allness of life that shifts and hides in proportion to my consciousness.  God doesn’t move.
“…because the kingdom of God is within…”

Reverend Juli Somers is the Executive Director of The Center For Inner Truth. She can be reached at 505-920-4418.

Written by Juli Somers

“Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it, so it goes on flying anyway”.  – Mary Kay Ash

What propels us to move out of our comfort zones and take new steps? We are wired to keep evolving and meeting ourselves anew as who we really are; a limitless spirit in a body. To do that, we are constantly asked or pushed and pulled to transform ourselves by creating change within and in what we give to the world.

Recently,  I was awakened to a next step for me to take. I have wanted to write a book since I was a child. I’m not sure why, but it was always a silent goal floating around inside of me to accomplish one day. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind for many a year. And then comes Ralph.

About a month ago, my friend Ralph sent me an email and said that he had an idea – why don’t I write a book? Since being a writer is part of his repertoire, he said he would support me in that process if I wanted to give it a shot. I read his email, questioned his sanity, and became amazed at the many reasons that immediately surfaced as to why I couldn’t possibly write a book. The biggest reason was, of course, that I have nothing to say.

We met, Ralph and I, and he told me a very simple way to go about it. He showed me how a book could be as uncomplicated as a small spiral bound notebook. Okay, I thought, maybe there is some possibility here. How hard can it be to commit to writing at least fifteen minutes a day on whatever comes up for me as he suggested? Surely I can do that!

Initially, it was rather magical. I would simply write what the day seemed to beautifully call forth from me. The next scene, a few weeks later, shows us Juli at her computer staring blankly at the screen…”Let’s see, two minutes have gone by…only thirteen more. Or, maybe those two minutes don’t technically count since I haven’t written anything…oh, there goes another two minutes…maybe I need a snack to get the words flowing”. Sure, an easy process alright.

Growth happens when you are ready to say yes to something new inside of you and take action to bring it into manifestation. Initially that can be exhilarating and generate a lot of enthusiasm. Each word you write is a sacred chalice that comes directly from the gods during this period (if writing is your next step). Then the honeymoon ends.

Suddenly, you may feel like you are pushing a boulder up a mountain. You really want to move forward in this new direction and are excited by the idea, but there at the top of the mountain are all of your past limits and old beliefs trying to stare you back down to the bottom. All the invalidating voices start to speak up and resistance to what you are doing can begin to feel overpowering. As Wayne Dyer states so eloquently in Excuses Begone!, “Simply being cognizant of your excuse making will open you up to vast arenas of new possibilities. You can begin this process by paying attention to the false part of yourself that believes in limitations. Simply observe the thoughts in your mind and feelings in your body and note when they don’t resonate with your authentic self.”

The choice is to turn around and take what appears to be the easy route back to familiar ground or you can decide to focus your energy on what you want to create. Decide that you can be the person you want to be and do the things you want to do. Free yourself of the limiting beliefs that keep you from going forward by choosing new ones.

All you need to do is take the next little step on the road to your goal. Suddenly all those next steps add up and you are holding a book you’ve written or on the job that you were afraid to apply for or having coffee with your future mate. All it takes is a little courage, a lot of perseverance and a good friend named Ralph to get the energy moving.

Reverend Juli Somers is the Director of The Center For Inner Truth.  She can be reached at 505-920-4418.

Written by Stacia Synnestvedt

A regular practice in my life has been remembering to consciously breathe. Yea, yea I’ve never actually forgotten to take those simple breathes that supply oxygen to my cells – but doing it in a very intentional manner is one of those things that was actually shut down during my childhood.

When I was younger, I clearly remember some of the adults in my life taking big exhales during times of stress, and being the empathic child that I was I quickly absorbed all the “yuck” they were exhaling as if I were an extra absorbant sponge.  As one might guess, it didn’t feel so good.  I remember at one point making a conscious decision that I would try very hard never to make noise when I breathed so as not to affect others around me.

Fast forward 20 years and I quite frequently found myself feeling my body all locked up, headachy, stiff, unenergized, etc. It took me several years to realize part of why I felt so terrible was because my breaths had turned into shallow inhales, and only when absolutely neccessary.  Eventually, I finally made the connection that the decision I had vividly made when I was a child, to take silent breaths, had turned into something so much more.  I had completely pushed any consciousness out of the way I was feeding my body what it needs to support not only my cells, but also my spirits’ ability to connect into my physical being.

When I started my meditation practice and began taking classes at the Center I would frequently hear the teachers taking loud intentional breathes to incite the students to do the same.  This was something I resisted, even then, sitting in meditation giving to no one other than myself.  Once I began thinking about being a teacher I remember thinking “Yea, but I’m not going to take those loud breaths for everyone to hear, I just can’t do that!”

During my clairvoyant training our class was going to have a group breath session led by Juli Somers, and I was in so much resistance to it that I actually, unconsciously, manifested a 102 degree fever and had to miss class.  Once I finally started to put things together I realized how much I dreaded allowing myself to release during intentional breaths,  especially when there were others around, and I decided to schedule a breath session with Juli.  This was an event that changed my life.  These sessions, where one releases whatever they are holding at an unconcious level, via guided and intentional non-stop breathing for an hour, quickly became very addictive for me.  I utilized this form of release throughout my pregnancy and am so thankful for how it helped me to move through things that I was working on during this time.

Even today, as I understand how important the breath is for the mind, body, spirit connection’s health, I still find myself holding on and resisting those glorious lung movements when things get frantic.  So, daily I am trying to catch myself when I feel my chest contracting and take a pause to take a deep breath in and then loudly exhale.

Unlike when I was a child surrounded by those wise adults who knew that they needed to purposely breathe to work through their stress, but unwise in the knowledge that they were blowing it right into my path, I strive to breathe in an intentional manner. I utilize my energy awareness tools, to ensure that I am not expelling what I am releasing to those around me who might unknowingly absorb it, as I did when I was a child.

My intentional breathing has now become something that actually evokes delightful giggles from my son.  Hooray for breaking old patterns.! Ahhhhhh…..

Reverend Stacia Synnestvedt can be reached through her website www.intuitiveavenues.com.

Written by Juli Somers

Here comes the sun and I said, “It’s Alright”. – The Beatles

Someone asked me at a community fair recently if spiritual healings are just for physical problems. The beauty of spiritual healings is they affect change on all levels. Different perhaps then a simple removing of symptoms, this type of healing goes to the core of an issue and affects change in one’s energy, consciousness, and ultimately, one’s life.

My analogy is when you plant a seed it takes root underground before manifesting as a particular plant above ground. Whatever you are experiencing in your life first took root on a deeper level; could be stemming from an old traumatic experience that was never totally released or a belief that came in at a young age that doesn’t serve your well being or even some energy brought in from a past life. This can show up present day on any level. It may appear in your life as a body issue or even an inability to manifest the kind of relationship or career you want. If you just remove the ‘symptoms’ without addressing the root cause, it will return again in the same or different form. Ever pull out a weed but don’t get all the roots? Then you know what I’m talking about – it sprouts right back up.

Picture a buoy. It is designed to float and has a built-in ability that propels it to the surface when it gets submerged. Life is designed to heal us; kind of a cosmic buoy. Whatever you do that doesn’t support your wholeness or isn’t in alignment with your purpose as a spiritual being, will surface as some challenge in your life. In Kabbalah, the term is Tikkun, which means correction. The universe, like any good parent, is directing us back onto our path of greatest transformation.

I was giving a healing to a woman at our weekly healing clinic at the Co-op the other day. She asked for a healing on her lungs and cough. I shared with her that I saw a lot of emotional congestion; regrets and past energies not released or forgiven. During the healing she coughed a lot which was unsettling for her. When we finished, she shared that often she notices with successful healings that she doesn’t cough at all while they are happening.

I responded that things sometimes appear to get worse before they get better. The tendency can be to resist or judge what is happening in that kind of situation, but it might be the means by which the blockage gets released. I don’t know what someone needs to experience before they can fully have a healing, but I trust that whatever is happening is perfect in the moment. As a healer, I know that ultimately the healing is out of my hands.

We can all be healers no matter the profession. The energy behind what you do affects everything and everyone around you. Infuse what you are doing with love. Spontaneously tell someone what you find beautiful about them. Give a smile to the person who looks like they just ate a sour lemon. Be the sun peeking through a cloudy day – maybe they walk away and become the sun to everyone else they encounter that day. Suddenly the world is a brighter place. If you need to be reminded of your sun-giving ability, come to the healing clinic for a tune-up or take a class to learn life changing tools to create a better world inside and out. Be of good cheer.

Reverend Juli Somers is the Director of The Center For Inner Truth.  She can be reached at 505-920-4418.

Written by Stacia Synnestvedt

It’s coming up on my own personal annual holiday, one that I lovingly call “Pull Your Head Out of Your Arse Day”.  I decided to recognize this annual day several years ago when I was reflecting on the odd “coincidence” that I happen to of had two car accidents on the same date. The first was when I was in High School and the second one was 7 years later.

In retrospect, I can see they both occurred around times in my life where a major transition was about to occur – but I was wanting things to stay the same and completely ignoring the little signs that I was being given to nudge me in a new direction. So what did I get instead? A big-ole-whammy (of a car accident) that forced me to change; and the fact that I had two incidents where this happened on the exact same date is more than simply coincidence. Perhaps it’s even so that I could be here today, telling you about this holiday of mine.

I have become a big fan of noticing the coincidences that spring up in my life and using them as synchronistic signs to guide me.  Hopefully, taking note of them before things get to the point of needing as big of a “wake-up call”, or what I like to think of as a push in a new direction, as a car-accident.  The more we can recognize and act upon even the simplest of those “Wow, what are the ODDS?” incidents the more we begin to be in the natural flow of our lives.

Syncronistic signs can come in all shapes and sizes – anything from feeling particularly strapped for cash and receiving a free cup of coffee at your favorite morning shop to running into an old friend that you haven’t seen for years right in the middle of New York City. How we interpret and utilize the sign can totally vary depending on our state of awareness at that specific moment in time, and it is often times easy to completely miss them.  However, the one thing that I do know it is that the Universe is designed to carry us along our path and no matter where we get hung up on a rock in the endless river of our source energy another little push or pull will be provided to help get us moving again.

Not too long ago, I was in a situation where I was going to be pushed in a direction that I wasn’t so sure was a good idea.  I prayed to God for something to get me out of it, and minutes later I was presented with a pretty big “Are you kidding me?” kind of coincidence that could have been a very EASY out; however, I didn’t recognize it in that moment and I was instead agreeable to continuing on the path that I had been resisting.  In retrospect, I found myself regretting that I didn’t notice the coincidence was in fact my sign from God as a way to alter the path.  However, it doesn’t really matter which direction I chose at that moment because there are lessons to be learned from the course things are on now.  I believe there will be more signs and forks in the road that will continue leading me on my path – in the same direction I’ve always been headed – back to aligning with myself.

I encourage you to dismiss the notion that there are any bad “accidents” cooky “coincidences” or “wrong” choices – everything happens for a reason. There is even a something behind why you are here, at this very moment, reading this article and newsletter.  Something to ponder as you flow through this wonderful thing we call life.

Reverend Stacia Synnestvedt can be reached through her website www.intuitiveavenues.com.

Written by Juli Somers

“In the depth of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer” – Camus

I know an astrologer who speaks in terms of winter cycles and summer cycles and how we are always moving in and out of both. In a winter cycle, life feels like it has stopped and one experiences restriction and limits. A summer cycle contains more expansive energy and movement. Last year I felt like a snowball in the dead of winter continually picking up speed and girth as I rolled down one rough hill of losses after another. If that doesn’t encourage you to surrender I don’t know what will. However, as the global world continued to shift and deconstruct during the beginning of this year, a very different energy was coming in for me; a lightness that seemed to be purposely hiding from me the previous year. I woke up one morning and noted that the inner snow was indeed melting and yes, the sun was beginning to shine through.

If we didn’t go through these winter cycles, we couldn’t get the gifts that come as a result. Sometimes I feel like a lump of clay on the wheel of life relentlessly spinning to see what I can become. Yet there is only one thing to become and that is me. I learned a lot about resistance this past year and how it is, to me, the antithesis of self-love. Resistance is a striving against what is; nonresistance is seeing things as they are instead of the way you want them to be. Which one do you think brings misery? My mantra has become ‘God does not make mistakes’ whenever something occurs in my life that I don’t understand or particularly like. My trust is deeper after this past year, that if it is happening it is right and I don’t have to understand it. It does help if I can bring myself to accept the events and my responses to them with compassion no matter how uncomfortable it makes me, knowing that it is the way of the universe to keep me on my path and grow my soul. Indeed I have found the summer is always present within the winter cycles because God is always present within me. Nothing can take that away. How loved I am! How loved we all are!

Another thing I experienced is that even when something feels insurmountable it will change.  My grief had an end. And what remained was the love that is always within me. A healer told me many years ago, when I was grieving the loss of a relationship that we can’t really lose anyone. I got it on one level back then and now I know how true it is. When you accept that we live beyond more than this time/space reality, you see that we can’t possibly escape each other! We are all woven together within a beautiful tapestry where spirit is the thread that creates and sustains all life. What a gift this life is….which reminds me of daffodils. I love daffodils. They are one of the first courageous flowers to poke their heads out even before spring really arrives. That bright, bright yellow color screaming joyfully ‘WE ARE ALIVE’; reminding us all that underneath the hard ground of winter there is infinite life just waiting to transform us. Be of good cheer!

In Spirit, Juli
Reverend Juli Somers is the Director of The Center For Inner Truth.  She can be reached at 505-920-4418.