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Crossing Bridges


Our journey through life takes us down many roads and pathways occasionally augmented with bridges. Bridges take us from here to there. Usually they traverse an otherwise un-crossable chasm of some description. It’s a short cut in many ways. A high and lofty path. Yes – every once in a while we are lucky enough to come across a bridge. Bridges, metaphorically speaking, are mystical things. They are neither here nor there. They are ‘in between’ places. They take us from one reality, one expression of life, or one understanding to another. Anything or anybody can present a bridge to us. They can also appear anywhere and anytime; in fact, in the most unpredictable places and in the most unexpected moments.

Standing in the middle of a bridge is similar to sitting on a fence. It can be really nice to stand on a bridge for a while. We get to witness the whole scene as it unfolds around us and see both sides of the proverbial coin without being attached to either outcome. They are usually peaceful places where we can take some time to build our confidence in our ultimate right to choose the direction of our next step. We can take all the time we need crossing the bridge. We can daydream, zone out and just rest for a bit but eventually to get anywhere we have to get off the bridge and go to either one side or the other. We can either go back the way we came or we take a chance and move on to the other side. Unlike a fork in the road where both paths may lead us to equally unpredictable paths a bridge presents us with a kind of parallel reality. It will take us to the other side of something that is eerily similar to the side we just left but somehow clearer.

These days my work is about building bridges and guiding people over them. I have earned my stripes as a bridge tour guide. I have stood on many and sat on either side of many too. I have also missed many bridges, failed to recognize them or not trusted in their safety. I have found that the worst thing to do when a bridge is offered up is to ignore it no matter how risky it looks. You can end up literally miles out of your way, confused and lost and then when you finally resolve to go back and try to find the crossing over spot again it seems to have disappeared. Bridges will rarely be found again in the same place twice. They seem to be more connected to right time and not necessarily place. When the bridge you didn’t take has disappeared you have to wait for another one to appear. This waiting may take a significant amount of time and we are an impatient species.  But the magical appearance of a bridge isn’t determined by our desire or impulses. Bridges seem to appear when we surrender, when we let go a goal of an outcome. They appear when we have sufficient faith that there must surely be another way.

Bridges are Personal Things

A bridge that appears to one person may be completely invisible to another. The opportunity to cross to another reality depends largely on our personal preparedness to change. Not everyone you care about may be ready to cross at the same time with you – not even the people you love the most. It’s a difficult conundrum to have to face going it alone for a time, leaving family and friends to explore something new that may seem undeniably important to you but ridiculous to them. Crossing a bridge may seem the fools journey or the hero’s journey in the same breath, and the truth may not be known until after you have crossed but the pull to cross is irresistible.

The main thing to remember when standing before a bridge is that you are being offered a two-fold opportunity. It offers you an opportunity to address a new potential of yourself and simultaneously that you are being allowed to cross over an obstacle that has appeared before you. The obstacle could be emotional or physical, psychological or spiritual, but which ever it is you will feel saved from a foreboding fearful outcome. A bridge may appear as a one time win fall, an unexpected influx of money for example that can safely carry us to a reprieve before financial ruin. Or it may show up as a new job or project that saves your brain from terminal boredom allowing you to grab hold of a new lease on the same life you already had. A bridge can be simply a helping hand that restores a lost faith in humanity. Whatever the case, whenever you choose to cross a bridge you will experience a deep sense of relief and gratitude for the path taken. A bridge gives us a chance to take a different road with potentially different outcomes.

I have crossed many bridges in my career, in my personal life, and in all my relationships. I am grateful for those bridges. In moments I have crossed from times that felt as barren as a desert to as rich as a rainforest. I have felt the pressure and fear of ominous, unspeakable danger and have crossed to places of radiant, loving peace in the space of a breath. I have been given spontaneous insight into right action when I’ve been hopelessly mired down in quicksand thinking. Suddenly a bridge appeared that allowed me to climb up and over safely to a new way. I know now that when I am in need of a bridge it appears. I am never left stranded. My faith in my universe, in omnipotent love, and in our inherent shared oneness ensures that a bridge will be spontaneously built when I need it – all I need to do is have the eyes to see it and the brave heart needed to cross it.

see also: https://andreathielconnell.com/2010/05/05/the-perils-of-fence-sitting/

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on March 6, 2012

Let Love Raise You Up!


In my new age world of spiritual healing it is very common to hear people talking about unconditional love and peace. It’s all part of the lingo. And even though I know that in their heart of hearts they truly mean to feel and hold unconditional love, saying so doesn’t make it so. So often I see and hear people today slipping into quiet, soft-spoken, treacle coated places assuming the countenance of smiling Buddhas. It’s as if people assume that to be seen as spiritual you have to appear to be made of sugar. Unfortunately, all too often, I see the sugar melt in the pouring out of tears that belong to fear, worry, anger, injustice and pain.

Fact is, that while most people can appreciate the ideal of unconditional love, they will easily fall for very human dynamics when it comes to living day-to-day life. Our common, very human, lesson in life is to learn how to let love raise you up! Up out of the low vibrations of fear, worry and anger. Our common, very human lesson is to learn to surrender to the flow and not to get caught in the overwhelming darkness of fear. In a dualistic expression it is our journey to discover ourselves and our potential through faith in what we can’t see. The question is: can we remember to let the pure vibration of unconditional love boost our lagging, depressed energy fields In our darkest hour?

Pray for Love

When we fear we pray. This is the way of humans. It’s our safety net. It’s a good thing.We are allowed to petition the God-consciousness to help us. Too often, however, people pray to have their problems resolved from a place of fear. Instead, try praying to raise your energy up out of fear. Pray instead to be filled with love. Pray to be re-aligned with your divine purpose and power. Pray to have your heart healed and your eyes set back on the course of faith and one love. Forgive yourself for being weak, fragile and afraid. And be willing to be restored in your greatness.

Dear God Consciousness of One, I am filled today with fear and worry. I pray for your support and love to flood my being. Hold me up now when I cannot hold myself. I am humble and grateful for your support. I am open and willing to receive the flow of love through my being. I am willing to release myself from my fears and worries. Allow me to experience your abundant flow of peace and love, clarity and wisdom, kindness and generosity. Remind me of my strength and purpose that I may serve my fellow beings to the best of my ability. Let me be a clear and precise mirror of the love that exists through and around all consciousness. Dear God renew me in my love and potential. I am one with all that is. So Be It.

We quickly say that love is all there is. We easily believe that God is love. We believe that God’s love is unconditional. If we want to believe that God’s love  – the driving force of our universe is All, then let’s try to understand the true relevant power of that. There exists a powerful benevolent force in our universe that is a truth unto itself. It seems to have no condition, no preference, no bias. It appears randomly and abundantly when needed. It seems to flow through our hearts. It creates healing, health and well-being and ultimately peace and Oneness. We call it unconditional love. Let Love raise you up!

Please follow the link below to a beautiful soulful piece of music that captures the quality of unconditional love. Enjoy! Pam’s music is available for sale, to order go to < http://www.pamgerrand.com >  – Give yourself a gift and have a look!

Love Is All by Pam Gerrand

Category:

Healing, Metaphysics

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A Reason for Everything…Let it Go!


I talk a lot about letting go and people nod, nod, nod and then shake their heads in hopeless confusion. Let go how? of what? when? and why? It seems an impossible concept to grasp. “How can I let go? Doesn’t everything happen for a reason? What if I let go of the wrong thing?” It’s a conundrum. In a societal, cultural structure that has told us to achieve, acquire, collect and attain it is a challenging concept to wrap our noodles around. We’ve been taught to grab on to that brass ring and never let go. And we’ve learned well…we hold on to our hearts, our feelings, our thoughts and belief systems, our ways, and our stuff.

Unfortunately, holding on to things is contradictory to the process of life. Everything in our world is impermanent. Every thing will rot, it will decay, it will die or it will simply change. To make sense of our lives as they are we try to create meaning around our things, our belief systems, our habits and the happenings of our lives. By creating reasons we give ourselves permission to hold on to things. On one hand we want to be free of the linear systems and on the other we try madly to recreate them forward. In one breath we try to be creative and open and in the next breath we are already trying to stuff everything into line where it makes sense. We are always trying to understand things from a meaningful point of view, from a reasonable perspective. Reason, after all, is what makes sense of this world and of us. Reasons assign the value of every thing and every happening. When tragic things happen we imploringly want to know why.  Unfortunately in determining reasons we can often lose the magic of the moment.

My Mind Says That There Is A Reason for Everything

There have been many times in my life when I have congratulated myself on being even-tempered, non-emotional, logical and reasonable. I am often able to see both sides of a situation, and be very sympathetic to the other persons’ position. I have prided myself on having big shoulders and bearing the burden in a situation because it seems easier for me to carry the load than passing the responsibility on to the appropriate shoulders. My very clever mind has always been extraordinarily good at ‘understanding reasons’ and creating reasonable projections into the future. My very clever mind, however, has not always been very good at just being with what was without reasons. I am learning. I am finding it’s enough to just be. I am discovering that often when we jump on the reason train we escape a situation before we’ve had time to really feel it out.

We use reasons to blame, to find fault, to create acceptance, to excuse behaviour and to create purpose. Can you accept your life and all the pieces in it without having a reason for them? Does that sound unreasonable to you? Can you accept a blessing without asking why or what for? Can you be present to another’s unbearable pain without trying to find a silver lining reason or purpose for it? These reason-making exercises are just occupations of a clever mind. Let go the need to explain, the need to project, the need to plan, the need to understand, or the need to know. Believe me life goes on without having reasons.

Fact is there may never be known reasons for everything no matter what my mind likes to think. We live in a cause and effect reality. Everything that happens stems from something. In this dualistic reality we can expect this to be the way it’s going to keep playing out. So we can effectively look behind us and see how things led to this moment but we have to be very careful how we extrapolate the present moment in to the future. Equations that cause effects that look like reasons don’t necessarily belong projected into the future. Sometimes it is simply more prudent to take the mind off the job and let the heart guide the way. Let go your reasons and have a little faith!

Heart Will Lead Us Down Uncharted Paths

When we search for and create reasons for events or situations we limit outcomes. We dictate a flow of energy that makes sense to our own minds for our own purposes. By determining a possibility we limit its’ whole expression.  The value of any moment is to be with it in the moment as fully and as emotionally as possible. The heart will authentically guide us toward our next moment. We may be able to come up with reasons to create the next step but this is unnecessary. When we breathe in and out we don’t think of when the next breath will come, we don’t think how to take the next breath, we usually simply allow it to arise when it needs to. When the body needs to breathe it will.  The naturally ever balancing aspect of our bodies and of our universe is to accept the moment fully as it is, feel the most personal relevancy in the moment and allow the next moment to swell up automatically without dictation or direction. Have faith that it will. The Heart that is connected to all the rhythm and synchronicity of the universe will in fact guide us perfectly.

There have been many times in my life when I have mollified myself by saying that everything happens for a reason. In hindsight I realize that most of these ‘reasons’ were simply excuses to avoid looking at the real issue, or to avoid doing what actually needed doing or even to avoid just sitting still. Sometimes we inadvertently build convoluted rational mazes just to keep ourselves from making the appropriate intuitive choice.

I have a couple of friends right now that are suffering in their need to take the next step yet are unable to figure out how, where or why. They are looking for reasons, for explanations and for purpose. So focused are they on there being a reason for their discomfort that they are unable to see that they are creating the bulk of their discomfort simply by not moving with the natural ‘swelling’ of the next moment. Their pain is caused by trying to validate their past experience as a reason for something else, they cling desperately to the past hoping for a different outcome.

Move On ! Let It Go!

So when I say let go I mean let go of your logic, let go of your reason making, let go of your need to understand why, let go of your mind needing to figure it out. When people experience emptiness in their lives, they struggle to fill it with something that made them feel good in the past. The approval from others, the love from others, recognition in success, or some other kind of validation. Leave all these things in the past, leave them in their time, let go and move forward. Allow the magical unknown nature of our Universe to blow a new possibility into your reality. Realize that you are pulling a sled of used up experiences with you that make no sense in the future. Let the new moment be fresh, filled with new life force. Let it swell up inside you with the next breath. It will.

Category:

Healing, Metaphysics

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Fact, Faith & Superstition


So often when I introduce Reiki to someone new who’s never heard of it before, particularily men (it’s the whole left brain thing) they inform me they don’t believe in faith healing. So I tell them the facts. I tell them why Reiki doesn’t require ‘faith’ in order to work and also what the scientific world is now starting to understand about energy and the human body. Then they get on the table.

Having said that I have tremendous faith in my Reiki treatments; I trust them to work 100% of the time. I have faith that there will be change in the client’s life – even if they don’t recognize it right away. Sometimes the changes that come after a treatment are different than what the client expected or wanted to happen, but again I have faith that Reiki – Universal Life Force energy knows best. I also have faith that Reiki will continue to work for our highest good always whether we believe in it or not. And as much as all this faith sounds a bit airy fairy – my faith is based on 15 years of facts, success stories and ‘miracles’.

You see I really am a skeptical person, I have put my Reiki through the paces. It has never made sense to me to blindly trust something that could affect someone else. Further more, since I have no religious conditioning I’ve never had to have blind faith in anything in my life. Everything I’ve ever held faith in had to be proven at some point, before or later makes no difference. If I’m going to believe in something it has to hold water. So I tend to look for the leaks in theories, ideas, people, friendships, stories etc. of course this also extends to my Reiki/Healing/ teaching work. Some leaks can be easily fixed and are worth the effort, other leaks require a complete tear down and start over.

All the work that I do is prone to superstitious undertones. Reiki, tarot cards, meditation, metaphysics, positive thinking etc. Superstitious ideas like ‘healer’s can’t work on themselves’, or ‘ Reiki is witchcraft?’, ‘don’t ask for healing/abundance for yourself’ are taking decades to work their way out of human consciousness. And the new age has also brought a few strange ideas to the table for instance, the other day I met a lady who almost did a backflip trying to erase the word ‘fear’ out of the energy field around us when I suggested that our freedom is governed by our fears, She felt that just saying ‘fear’ would attract fear to her. Very bizarre. She had fear for the word fear…hmm, what’s wrong with this picture. I systematically avoid all superstitious belief systems and rituals based in superstition. My work is for the real world, grounded in facts, with real results.

I have a couple things though I am superstitious about. 1. I always pick up pennies, and if I sweep one up off the floor at home I don’t throw it out with the rest of the dirt. Because superstitiously I believe if I don’t pick it up I am throwing away good fortune.  2. I never throw out any cards, notes, or letters that have been signed with Love; again I don’t want to throw wishes of love away. 3. I have never thrown a book out in my entire life; I won’t throw knowledge or words away. Hmmm… maybe I’m just a packrat?….nah!

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Metaphysics

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Forever Questing…It’s the only way!


As children, my siblings and I were taught to question everything. My Father drilled into us to not ever just believe anything. All trust, all faith had to be earned; even then it was up for discussion. For the most part this philosophy has guided me well. Today I use this philosophy to guide me in my discovery with reiki and metaphysics and even in raising my kids. Because of this questing nature I have a hard time just blindly accepting all the anecdotal information that pours out unreservedly from spiritually minded people. It is so interesting to me how easily smart, educated people will accept the same old ideas no matter how fantastic, without ever asking ‘Really?…are you serious?‘ and believe me I have had no shortage of unbelievable stories in my life. It’s not that I’m really all that skeptical, (OK – maybe I am) but I prefer to think of it as curious. I was that kid that had to ask ‘why?’ a million times a day and I have kept asking why as my life unfolds. The really cool thing is that there is ALWAYS an answer for the why question. Sometimes the answer leads to another question that starts with ‘but if…’ and sometimes it ends with an ‘Oh! I get it!’ and sometimes hearing the answer is all you really need to recognize that you knew the truth all along. Sometimes the truth is simply the hardest thing to hear.

But I have learned that just the asking begins the unraveling of the mystery. Afterall, life isn’t really mysterious, we live in a dualistic cause and effect world and reality is built on building blocks of information. I find that the biggest block to understanding what is really going on in any situation is usually 2 fold. Firstly, we like to wear our favourite coloured glasses (they could be rose coloured or grey coloured or blue or green etc.) to make sure that everything we look at is viewed with the same shading of belief (rosy, hopeless, depressed, envious etc) which keeps life comfortable and relatively predictable; and secondly we keep our blinders firmly glued to the sides of our heads to keep our scope of vision nicely limited. By limiting what we are exposed to we think we can control the path our life will take.

Let’s face it, processing new information is consuming work. You gotta’ think…HARD even sometimes! And furthermore, sometimes those thoughts are going to land you in some unpopular place and we all know how hard that can be. We learned as kids that it is way easier being popular than different. These two popular and fashionable (and by that I mean common) accessories work reasonably well to keep the path ahead uncluttered of unexpected obstacles and doubts. Everything goes along as expected, well that is until one day it suddenly doesn’t. Suddenly, one day, out of the blue, an unexpected terror blocks the road. Death, illness, financial loss, or even extreme boredom appears and screams at us to get off the road! Take a detour! Change your mind! Change your ways! And we stall, dumbfounded, confused and before we know what’s happening we ask ‘Why?’ and the quest begins.

In that moment Universe presents to us an option. Sometimes the one road changes into a very clear forked path and we are forced to choose this way or that way. Other times it seems we are tricked to follow a different path with things that seem to glitter and shine with promises that turn out to be fool’s gold. And other times, we don’t know why, we suddenly veer off into the underbrush following some kind of white rabbit that takes us on a journey we will never forget. However it happens we will, at sometime in our lives, find ourselves on the road less traveled. If we want we can squat down on the road we are on and stubbornly refuse to budge. We can stay there, live there and eventually die there without ever having to change one single thought, peacefully polishing our glasses and re-gluing our blinders every day but this isn’t life.

Life is meant to be lived and experienced not only survived. Only a new choice will quicken the heart and spark the mind. Only choosing a new road will tease the Spirit Within to awaken with groggy interest.  And once on that new road we have to embrace that we are indeed thinking, reasoning, independent creatures of consciousness meant to exercise our inherent right to choose. Our survival will be determined by our choices, our reactions, our resistance/acceptance of the new. Our happiness determine by our bravery, commitment and creativity.

And so life is lived; questing, challenging,  defeating enemies of the one true heart, embracing the unknown, and conquering fears. We are then rewarded with riches untold, unlimited love, and strength of a thousand elephants. After we have quested we come to know the stuff we are made of. We know then that we are strong enough to ask ‘Why?..’ with the innocence of a child and the wisdom of the oldest sage.

So this blog is for asking ‘why..?.’ or ‘what if…?’ or ‘how..?.’ I am every bit as curious as I was when I was 5, except now I have a car, a computer and bigger reality. Today my world and indeed my universe is much, much bigger and so are my questions and thus my experiences.

Category:

Healing

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