"...I know that it's time for a cool change.."

"If there's one thing in my life that's missing
It's the time I spend alone
Sailing on the cool and bright clear waters
There's lots of those friendly people
Showin' me ways to go
And I never want to lose their inspiration

But, it's time for
a cool change...
I know that it's time
for a cool change
Now that my life
is so pre-arranged
I know that it's time
for a cool change..."
"Cool Change"
- The Bellamy Brothers
(click on the title above to hear the song)

Changes are in the air...and they are cool...and wonderful.  Graduations, weddings, new jobs, promotions, babies, travel.  Cool changes. 

Someone recently asked me, "If you could give only one gift, the same one to each person making a life transition this month, what would it be?"

It was easy.  The space to be alone, to be still, and to listen in that silence for the voice of the Divine, God, Allah, Jah, Supreme Being...or whatever you call Her.

This is the most valuable part of any day for me.  It is the "one thing" I cannot live without.  I can do without food, water (for a time), conversation, friends, books (this one is hard...but not impossible), the company of my loved ones (even harder)...but I cannot live without the space to commune with God.

It is a change of direction that I seek throughout my days when everything points towards tasks, deadlines, timetables, and schedules...outcomes and accomplishments, to stop and turn away from that momentum and be still.

It is a cool change.  It is refreshing, invigorating, soothing, and inspiring.  It feeds me and cleanses my palate all at the same time.  It is wonderfully simple and deeply complex.  It is richly sumptuous and pure light coincidentally.  It is what gives me the kind of joy that none can take away.

Whether it is your wedding day or your first day of work at the most wonderful new job you could imagine...the birth of your first child or the launching of your catamaran out to sea after retiring from a long illustrous career...it will never be more glorious than hearing the voice of God in the silence of your own heart...inspiring you, giving you encouragement, direction, guidance, solace.

It has taken me many years to more fully develop a practice of silence and deep listening that sustains me.  And the more I practice it, the more I hunger for it.  And that silence doesn't require a closet, a church, or a sanctuary...boat alone on the sea, or a chapel in the woods.  It can be practiced in the midst of a concentration camp (as proven in the lives of thought luminaries like Corrie TanBoom and "Jeremy"), a prison cell (think of Paul, Ghandi, Mandela), a war-torn desert, a large family, a high school cafeteria, a wedding reception, or even a rock concert.  As the word practice implies, it takes practice...but that's the fun of it. 

Start out with silent places (church, your bedroom, a garden) and work up to carving out silence spaces...within yourself...in the midst of more stimulating places -- it .  

I wish I could give each of you one hour a day alone within the sanctuary of your own consciousness...the province governed by the divine.  But this is not a gift anyone can give you...it is a gift you must give yourself.  But it is not a selfish gift.  It is a gift that, when practiced, can't help but bless others in ever-widening circles of love and inner peace.

When you walk away from a confrontation, an event...even a joyous one, the demands of a busy schedule, and re-calibrate yourself in alignment with the Source of your divine nature and purpose, everyone is blessed and benefited.

Imagine you are in the middle of your wedding reception and you step away for a moment or two...into the garden, in the stairwell, behind the curtain...to center your heart on God's hand in your life, your new marriage, your purpose, to give thanks, to ask, "How can I most serve You in this moment?" and then listen for the answer.  Imagine the look of peace that you will radiate from your entire being when you return to the festivities.  Imagine the tone you will set...much like a tuning fork sets the perfect pitch in tuning a piano.

A few weeks ago I had the privilege and joy of attending a James Taylor concert in a small concert hall with a generous friend.  Time and again during the concert (an event I had waited since 1970 to experience...JT up close and personal...oh my goodness!!!) I was called away by my phone for a conversation and then to pray...or to pray during the conversation.  It was my favorite part of the night...to realize that as much as I loved JT's voice, his songs, his lyrics...I loved the voice of God even more!!  I never once felt "interrupted" by a call, but it felt as if the calls were making the concert more wonderful, more rich, more sacred.  Each call was a reminder that God's voice was my favorite voice. 

So, as we all enter this season of cool changes, I pray that we each love ourselves enough to give the bride...the new mom, the recent graduate, the concert-goer, the healer...within ourselves, the gift of silent spaces with God. 

"...If there's one thing in my life that's missing
It's the time that I spend alone
Sailing on the cool and bright clear waters
It's kind of a special feeling
When you're out on the sea alone
Staring at the full moon like a lover

Time for
a cool change...
I know that it's time
for a cool change
Now that my life is so prearranged
I know that it's time
for a cool change..."

dearest love...hopes, and dreams fulfilled...to each of you,
Kate
Kate Robertson, CS

"Work like you don't need the money..."

"Work like you don't need the money,
love like you've never been hurt,
dance like noone is watching
live like it's heaven on earth."
-     Clark/Leigh

Last week my Bible study took me on a wonderful journey….it meandered through childhood premises held too long, up and over mountains of self-doubt and weariness, and shed new light on vistas reached in the darkness of wandering along by feel…not by sight.

I remember hearing grown-ups talking about how they would work hard, make money, spend wisely, save lots, and retire…and then they would be happy, having fun, living the dream.  Everything was geared towards that goal.  Hard work (i.e. a salary) was the path to nirvana…retirement.

I started my adult life with this goal.  Graduate from high school with honors, get a scholarship to the best university, go on to graduate school, post graduate studies in a field I loved, get a teaching job, save lots of money, retire and write….in between these steps I would have romances, get married, travel, dance, have children, be a super-mom (translate: teach college, campaign for public office, bake cookies, dance and write poetry…all while tan, trim and wearing tastefully attractive lingerie to keep my husband's interest in me alive...I did say this WAS my fantasy superwoman life...didn't I? One that girls and women have been sold for decades...but that's "a whole 'nuther" story girlfriend..snap, snap, snap, wave...). Back to today's train of thought... 

Well…my plan got hi-jacked early on.  I graduated from high school with honors and got that full-ride scholarship to my choice of universities but when dad passed on that same year I skipped a few steps and went straight into a combination of work hard, be a full-time surrogate mom (with my mom…I had seven younger brothers and sisters), go to school part-time, and earn money…but in this plan there was nothing left over for savings…retirement was out of the question.  So we worked.

I worked to have money so that we, as a family, could have what we needed to live….I worked so that we could live…in a home, not hungry, clothed, with lights and water.  Eventually we all worked so that we all could live, go to school, reach our potential, succeed.  Thanks to our socialist upbringing, I now believe we were hard-wired to accept the philosophy that "nobody wins until (and unless) everybody wins."  I actually think it is part of our DNA…a little motto inscribed on some xy chromosone that forms and defines the cellular memory of each molecule in our hearts. 

But I digress…(that was for you Clifford!) last week's Bible study led me to question the formula for success that defines life as:

Work = salary (money)
Money = having what you need + some for savings
Savings money = retirement
Retirement = no work
No work = success in life

Well, I conceded early on that it was unlikely I would ever be on this success track.  With a mom, seven brothers/sisters to partner with, and as a career educator my earning would, quite probably, never reach the point where all the family's needs were all met and I had some left over.  I was grateful to be in a profession that if I worked hard as a teacher and eventually as a professor, and published as an academic, retirement might never be required.   This became my goal. But even this left me still feeling like somewhat of a failure because I didn't know how I would ever get "there"...wherever "there" was. I had accepted my path, but it didn't feel like success. 

Then in walked God, in a real and life-defining way, and my plans were scattered like dust in a whirlwind.  Without as much as a side-long glance, I left my career as an educator and started serving Him.  I began working for my church in whatever way it needed me, while making myself publicly available 24/7 as a spiritual healer.   That was over 20 years ago and I've never looked back...although I have to admit that there have been times (especially in the beginning) when fear of poverty, an old car on its last legs, another night of rice and peas, and a stack of bills made me long for the security of a salaried job and a regular paycheck. 

Last week I realized that what I had done, without ever even realizing it until last week, was accept a new paradigm.  One that is defined in II Corinthians:

"…ye, having all sufficiency in all things
may abound to every good work."

I had given up the:

Work in order to have,
Have in order to retire,
Retire in order to not work

equation for success.

And accepted a new one:

I have all sufficiency from God
So that I can work..forever!

Work is my goal, my love, my success…I love my work!

I am no longer working so that I can eventually have something, save for retirement, and stop working.   I have all that I need each moment...from God (sometimes in the most surprising, charitable, and remarkable ways)...so that I will never have to stop working. God had, by sending me on this rather circuitous...and rugged...journey, wrested from my vise-like grip a singular strategy for reaching what I thought was the only acceptable model of success. 

Yea!!  I've discovered that it really is true, as Eddy says in Science and Health:

"The very circumstance, which your suffering sense
deems wrathful and afflictive,
Love can make an angel entertained unawares."

God's love for me...expressed as an abiding sense of love for, and responsibility to my family, and eventually my unwavering love for God...led me on a journey of discovery more wonderful and enduring than any other success plan I might have come up with. God leads each of us on a path that reveals more and more of His omnipotent love...for some that may very well look like the work, have, save for eventual retirement model...so that they can pursue "work" that they love, or whatever they desire.  I am just so grateful that He has given me work that I love today, since I plan to do it now...and forever...

with Love,
Kate