Truly Affordable

Most all of us have seen the picture or the statue of Shiva dancing with a ring of fire around Shiva. Now we have the circle, and we’re comfortable, we can hold the circle. Now we take the circle as the ring of fire and Shiva as a declaration of I. We’ve now changed the circle on the piece of paper on the page into a circle of fire with a deity dancing.

That deity is Shiva, which is change, big time. It’s a circle of fire, and the story of course is that Shiva is dancing, and the fire is the fire that transforms everything. There’s nothing left that isn’t transformed by this fire. And yet it’s a circle, so there’s a Wholeness in this. So what we’re doing is we’re beginning to embrace change, transformation big time, with Shiva, and Shiva is identity. Shiva is a sense of I, of Divine I.

The multiple selves are all aligning themselves in the circle of fire around Shiva. They can be consumed by the fire. They can be transformed by the fire. In a sense, what’s happening because you have that image in the center, or basically as the sense of I within the circle of change is that in a sense, the dance that Shiva is doing, even though it’s depicted with one leg up, and one arm up one way and one arm up another way, it’s not a stop action. It is a continuous action. So as various aspects of personality are touched by the fire, become the fuel of the fire, that becomes a dance move that Shiva is doing in the dance.

It’s very helpful to have that Wholeness of the circle because you’ve begun to sense a continuity within yourself, day in and day out, moment in and moment out. As you begin to utilize the dancing Shiva in the circle of flame and realize what’s going on, realize that literally, aspects of me are actually radiating out of the circle into Shiva and becoming part of the Divine Dance. So I’m transforming the limitations of the aspects of my personality into open-ended Divine Expression.

How often do you find yourself saying, “No, I don’t want this in my life!” “This isn’t okay!” “I want this to be different!” when an experience shows up that has you less than thrilled? If you’re like most people, I’m going to guess, almost always.

This is such a normal reaction, because the fact is, we like feeling good rather than
bad. And with that said, there’s another reaction that I’d like you to take into
consideration. One, that might have you shouting from the rooftops. It goes
something like this:

“Yes! This is my life!”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Okay, I hear those thoughts running through your head right now. You’re thinking:

“This woman is nuts.”
“Why in the world would I scream from the rooftops shouting thank you over and
over again when I’ve just lost my job and I’ve got a family to support and a
mortgage to pay!”

Or

“Who in their right mind would get excited and be thankful when someone close to
them has died?”

Well, when you put it that way, you’re right, I am nuts! But what I really want for you
at this moment is to allow yourself to travel a little further down the road. You
know, after some time has gone by and you’ve gotten over the initial shock of that
‘less than thrilling experience’.

I would imagine all of you have been through shocking, personal experiences in
your life. And, when given enough distance from the initial shock of the news, you
were able to gain a new perspective, see the bigger picture and learn something
from it. You grew in a way that you might not have if you didn’t have that
experience. Providing of course, that you allowed the growth to take place.

When you allow yourself to accept the fact that life is not always going to bring you
the ability to grow spiritually and emotionally by only handing you lemonade, it
gives you the opportunity to dig a little deeper and ask yourself some really
important questions.

Some of those questions might be:

1. What do I need to know about myself to understand this better?

2. What can I do differently that I might have missed so this doesn’t happen again?

3. Who have I not forgiven in my life that it’s time I did, so I have no regrets when
he or she passes on?

4. Now that I have this opening available to me, what does my heart and soul want
to fill it with?

5. What’s the best use of my time so I grow leaps and bounds from this experience?

The questions are endless and they will vary for all of you depending on what life
has handed you in the moment. I invite you to love all of your life, because the fact
is…it’s the only one you have. And the sooner you can appreciate and honor every
aspect of it, the quicker you will be able to move from your, “No, no, no!” To your
rooftop, shouting, YES, YES, YES!!