CREATING TIME AND ENERGY   We invite you to take a few moments to relax your muscles and to let go of the concerns of the day. Take several deep breaths in and out to oxygenate your cells and to increase the energy running through your body.

In order to have a more fulfilling life filled with passion and excitement, you would be wise to be selective of the activities in which you choose to be involved. Every person has the same 24 hours to work with each day. Sleep takes a major portion of that time. By the time you finish adding on the hours required to make enough income to take care of your basic needs, to cook and clean, there is little time and energy left in the day for recreational activities.

Many of you would do well to streamline the above-mentioned events first. Do you sleep more than you need? Diet and medications affect the amount of sleep needed to feel rested. When you are in a highly stressed job and lifestyle, the requirements needed for your body to rest are increased.

When you are healthy and vibrant, you will need less sleep to feel rested. Many of you sleep very little and wake up tired. This need not be. Does your work fill you with energy or deplete you? Are the people you work with kind and considerate? Are you able to take a day or two to rest when you are sick and tired? Is there another type of work you would rather be doing? Take these things into consideration and decide whether it is in your best interest to find a better-suited form of income for yourself. Have the courage to make the necessary changes.

Zen Gardner, Guest
Waking Times

“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” – Cornelius Tacitus (55 – 117 A.D.)

Everything on our planet is regulated – as in ruled by law.  Whether they be outright laws, local ordinances or any type of restrictions, in not just physical activity but also social rules over interactions. Under the guise of so-called democratic societies giving the impression that we agreed to all of this or even thought it up for ourselves, we now live seriously restricted lives, with the penalty of fines or incarceration looming over our heads if we don’t obey.

It’s all about control. Carefully manipulated control.

To regulate means: “to control or direct by a rule, principle, method, etc.” When you identify just how un-free we are to live, think and operate as we are naturally intended to, it can be quite a wake up call...

Christina Sarich, Natural Society
Waking Times

Through the efforts of just over a dozen volunteers, thousands of pounds of fresh fruit are being gleaned from historical orchards planted more than 150 years ago to give to nearby residents who live with less than enough food. Individuals who give back to the community often stock the pantries of those who are food-insecure during the holidays, but it is a relatively new phenomenon for those who can’t afford groceries to be given expensive or organic produce.

One group putting forth efforts to feed the homeless with high-quality produce is Village Harvest. Village Harvest began with the efforts of Craig Diserns, who thought backyard produce could be gathered to give to the homeless and food-insecure. His backyard efforts have turned into a huge harvesting of persimmons this year, which were crated by volunteers and taken to families residing near the private property where the fruit was picked.

It’s simple enough to think about being zen in the city; easy enough to imagine how calm and relaxed you could be in your 9 to 5 job and lifestyle, floating around the office like a monk and effortlessly accomplishing your goals while spreading peace of mind, but doing it, as always, is quite a different story. 5 minutes in any high-stress situation and most, if not all of the buddhist tenets we profess to hold go right out the window.

And that’s okay. It’s actually why the office is one of the very best places to put our practice to the test. Modern life is so hectic it would surely challenge even some of the greatest masters. The continual demands that are placed on us beg the proper discernment that zen can bring, if only we can stay centred enough to remain there. One of the surest ways of accomplishing this is building our ‘presence power’ in the moments that aren’t too challenging

Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch
Waking Times

Clean, renewable energy sources are now Scotland’s number one source of power, according to new figures from the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change and reported in Scotland’s daily paper The Scotsman. The figures, which include solar, wind, hydro and biomass, showed that renewable energy generated 32 percent more electricity than any other single source in the first half on 2014. Renewable energy sources produced a record 10.3 terawatt-hours of power, compared to 7.8TWh from nuclear, 5.6TWh from coal and 1.4TWh from gas-fired power stations during that same time.

Think of a professor who had devoted his entire life to the study of one particular topic and its history over the centuries. If you were interested in the same topic, would you go to him? Or would you listen to someone else who had studied something else entirely?

Dear Ones, you are the esteemed experts of your own life expressions. You hold, within your soul memory, the accumulated wisdom of centuries. Others may be well meaning, and may have considerable knowledge of their own soul paths, but you are the only expert on you. Listen to your inner knowingness. There is no greater source of knowledge on you, than you. ~Archangel Gabriel

How big can a heart be? A heart can encompass all the Earth and Heaven. If thoughts reach far and beyond, what can hearts do? What do hearts do? They reach everywhere and into every other heart on Earth. Can this be documented, measured and counted and a chart made of it? You don’t know how, and We don’t need charts and such. I need no proof. I see. I know.

You might say that I get this intuitively. You must know by now that I don’t have to get on My knees with a ruler or measuring tape and measure anything. I know all. I know your face and your heart. Being is simple for Me, just as Creation Itself was and is simple for Me. Oneness is very simple. It is the Ultimate Simple. Simple is good. I will say it is better than complicated. I have Free Will, and it is My Will that life be simple.

You make a huge investment in this lifetime. Huge. I invest, to use your word, All of Myself yet I, God, love wholly and am not attached. Do you think I weep when an individual body drops off and the Living Soul rises to Heaven? That I am not sad does not make me hard-hearted or cold-hearted. I welcome the beautiful soul who is also in no way bereft. I am not attached to Life on Earth whereas you are attached. Understandably, you are attached.