How long had I been destroyed by life? The question sent shock waves of emotion throughout my entire being.

The realization that I have been destroyed by my life suddenly crashed into my reality the other night while I was in the bathtub where I soak daily, the one luxury I still allow myself that is purely for me. How does such a destruction go unnoticed for so long and how long has it been? But there I was in my nightly bathing ritual reading The Legend of Bagger Vance because I was told it is based on the Bhagavad Gita. Oh, I had read the Gita years before and it was life altering at that time. But this story about the game of golf irrevocably moved my reality to the awareness of my state of destruction.  I sobbed as I finished reading the rest of the story.

I had the definite longing to hit golf balls while at the same time being profoundly aware of how long it had been since I have enjoyed a golf course, my clubs gathering cobwebs in the garage. When I dripped my way from the tub, to the towel, to the toothbrush, to the bed, it was like I was moving beyond those cobwebs that had become me and found a phoenix arising now from my ashes.

I did not know what would happen nor did I care and so I slept like a baby who knows nothing about this life yet. Without fear, I arose and asked my son if he wanted to walk down to the lake. His eyes were wide when he said, “You want to walk to the lake now?” His was the first shocked look of my week-long of shocked expressions and comments about my new state of being. Obviously, I cannot see myself except through the reflections of others. I am no longer thinking. Now it is a state of continual being and it somehow transforms how I appear to others. “You look different, somehow lighter,” was how one woman commented.

The next day, I told my group at noon about the events that had been transpiring in my life and I watched as they appeared to be transfixed. This rapt attention I know with complete certainty is not the result of me. It is God reflecting through me. I feel like a child following a butterfly every second of the day right now watching the magic of life all around me and others are… entranced by that energy.

As I headed home from work in that state of bliss, I stopped by the lake to take in the wonder all around me with my therapy dog, Abby. She really loves this new state of being as it involves trips to her favorite spots in life. She is a natural at the Game. We got out of the car and there on the banks of the lake, an exotic appearing man was patiently pulling at a fishing line in the water, rod almost bent in half.  Simultaneously, I thought  of Yoda and the Karate Kid knowing that I was entering the realm of supremely mystical. He is to be my personal Bagger Vance but instead  of a caddy, he is a  fisherman like Christ. Today he catches me. As I walk tentatively up to him I asked, feeling sort of retarded, “Did you catch a fish?” He looked at me very patiently as he continued his task and said, “I have been battling with this for over twenty-five minutes.” At the moment he completed his sentence, the fish appeared, a monster catfish, to me it looks about two feet long and not of this world.

I thought, be still Diane, everything he says from now on is the lesson you are here to learn. “You see, I hooked him on the line that is wrapped around his pectoral fin.” Pointing at the spot on the fin, he spontaneously cut the line loose and the monster was gone. In shock I said “Oh we should have taken a picture of that fish.” I felt sort of regretful that this magnificent fish was gone in that instant. He on the other hand was on to the next moment. I was so mesmerized and still looking at the water now that I had not previously thought of a camera and now it was too late.  This experience was in slow motion but moving in seconds of real time.

Appearing entirely oblivious to the prior event, he said, “Can you believe it, I actually pulled a rod out of this lake once and later I pulled out a reel. Then the next day a little handicapped boy came by on his bike and was watching me fish. He told me he wished he could fish and I suggested he ask his father to take him. He said he had no father and had no fishing pole. Well, I told him to come around tomorrow  because the lake had given me that rod and reel for him. He came back and I taught him how to fish. He hands were so tiny, his fingers could barely handle it but he was having the time of his life. You never know what you will pull out of this lake.” He was grinning ear to ear with wonder.

As he completed his story, he sort of meandered on down the bank of the lake and I felt Abby tugging to run the grass. Where had she been during this event? She usually will not sit still for anything when she hits that lake area. But there she was tugging the leash and time returned to itself.

The next day, I was still awake and not only awake,  I was now becoming a full blown phoenix with a voice reminding me to ignore any habitual negativity. Just play the Game. I stepped out of my garage to load Abby and my briefcase into my back seat and noticed that the sky was ominous. I am usually afraid of lightening and hurry to get inside. Today, however, I breathed in the moisture and laughed at the sky. If lightening wants to kill me, then I thought that would be hilarious and as a matter of fact, I will stop by the post office and dare it to end my life.

When I told my business partner this lightening story, she looked very frightened, not because I dared lightening to strike me but because I was an alien. “Are you a walk in?” her way of asking me if I have been possessed by another being and no longer exist as me. The truth is I am no longer the me that I was because I was destroyed. This  is the me resurrected.

We were on our way to the Cellular Theta Breath Class. As soon as I closed my eyes in the meditation, I instantly saw a vision of myself fishing by the bank of a lake. I threw in my line and pulled out one of my intentions in life. I kept throwing it in over and over. Time and again, I manifested every intention I have in life and it was so much fun. I was having the time of my life.

You see, I remember that I am here to play the Game once again. I think that maybe I have been here many times and every time I come here to play the same Game, the one Game which is mine to play. I will never forget how to play it because how can you not know how to play what you are. It’s so effortless to pull out your intentions and in fact can be so much fun. Of course, you do have to agree to keep going to the lake, taking your equipment and you have to fish. And most of all, when the lightening comes, the wind blows and threatens to destroy me again, then I will remember that if I am still here when the tornado becomes a breeze, well… to play like an angel.

Aum Namah Shivaya

©D Donovan

You can buy my new book, Destiny - Finding Your Way Home by here: http://stores.lulu.com/destinyretreats

Last night, I had a mystical experience in the Cellular Theta Breath Group. While I was saying the prayer of protection, I walked to the back of the room. I was pulling in the light and focusing on being one with God - The Divine. A Divine Union intention of the past two weeks of St. Francis teachings are influencing the intensity of the energy that I am feeling, as if the wattage is being turned up to high beams of light. At that moment of intensity, a magnificent angel exited out of my heart and unfurled giant translucent feathery wings in front of me so that I was viewing the wings from behind. I thought, “Is that me or is that an angel coming to visit the breath participants? “How, where…” my mind is struggling to make sense of something indescribable to my ordinary reality. I was shocked and confused, joyful and expanding as I experienced this glorious being standing connected to me as if it was me but me like a butterfly emerging or being birthed from my heart or through the tunnel of light I was bringing into this room.

As that moment passed, I moved back to the front of the room thinking that if this is all I were to experience this night it would last for a lifetime and the breath experience for me had just begun. I moved into my cocoon of repose, my mat for the breath meditation that lies just beneath the pictures of Buddha and Kwan Yin and closed my eyes to drift into theta dreams. Breathing deeply, I asked my chatting brain to be still and I was instantly transported to ‘the room in the sky’ as I call it. I have been here often and most often I am here during the breath. I am not surprised to be here, nor am I surprised that my son David is here. He has been in this room and talking to me ever since he died in 2007. Immediately he says, “Thank you for wearing my necklace.” I am wearing his platinum necklace today for the first time since 2007. This very morning, I decided to take it from the chest that holds his ashes and other memories. I washed it with salt and soda, and prayed I could wear it now. Two years ago when I tried to wear it, I had felt all the pain and suffering he had suffered for years like the pain had infused itself into the precious metal. I could not bear the pain and put the necklace into its final resting place. Today, I took it out and after bathing it, I placed my protection talisman along with a pendant I had obtained in Assisi on it. By the time I got to the class that night, I had felt no pain from the metal all day.

As David spoke his next words, “I want to share something with you,” Jesus and Mary materialize. I realize now that I am again experiencing shock and confusion at their sudden appearance from ‘thin air’. I have seen them both before in this place of light I call ‘the room in the sky’ but not together or so intimately next to my face. They are breathing into me. Every time I see saints or exalted beings in this room, it feels as if I have entered into a space by accident and that I do not belong here. Tonight, I do not have the time to think because just as suddenly Yeshua and Magdalene - Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine - merge into my heart and now where the angel had been just minutes before these two are one with me
Almost as if nothing has occurred, I drift on again with my breath journey as usual, dreaming theta dreams, seeing visions and going so deep that I lose the sounds of the music playing nearby, until the very end when I find myself standing in ‘the room in the sky’ with David. He repeats again, exactly like the first time, “Thank you for wearing my necklace.”

The music then creeps into my conscious awareness on the last few notes. When I open my eyes and say to the room of participants, “Take a deep breath, take a deep breath,” twice while slowly exhaling and inhaling, I find my fingers running along the thick edges of the platinum necklace and it feels like the Light, as if has been alchemically transformed from lead into gold.

Before, it was pain. Then, it was in the grave. Next, it was baptized and resurrected, and finally it was reunited with the Divine and purified. I am the one it chooses and I am the one who chooses it.
Divine Union, the time to choose is now because it is always choosing you while waiting for you to surrender.
©2009

Volume 8 Issue 3

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Gratitude

About every thirty years it snows like it did this week in

In

Then the snow arrived and a sort of calming affect began to settle upon the town. People began to do the unthinkable. Slow down. Be careful. Enjoy the large fluffy snowflakes. Take the advantage of stopped traffic to snap a picture on the cell phone to send to loved ones. They took their time. The response of the drivers reminded me of when I first moved here. I was in the seventh grade. The first time it began a torrential rain one day and everyone stopped what they were doing to ooh and ah about the rain. I moved here from a wet and soggy

I do not think it is a coincidence that this is the year that it is snowing twice during the day in

Thank you to God for giving us the snow in the desert this week. I, for one appreciate the beautiful snowflakes from heaven as much as the children’s smiles and as much as the exuberant joy in my dog’s reaction to your snow. Thank you so much for sending snow for Christmas time.

Diane Donovan©12192008

Volume 1   Issue 39   

 Destiny – A Peaceful Person Needs & Wants Nothing

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Finding Your Way Home  Destiny 31 – Spring 2009

Find Your Peace at a Destiny Retreat in Sedona! 

Help From Your Higher Power 

Where do you look when you need help?  Who do you ask? Do you ever have one of those days when you wake up late because the electricity was off and your alarm is not correct? You cannot complete your morning schedule in your usual way and you miss your breakfast and coffee. You know practically from the first minute that the day is going to be bad!? The mind says, “I am having a bad day!” When you look in the mirror, you do not like what you see. You look around and everyone looks bad also. If they smile, you may resent the smile, like why is everyone else having a good day but me? If they frown, you may resent them for frowning like they are a part of your bad luck. The car won’t start while your mind keeps thinking, “I am having a bad day!”The funny thing about this type of ‘bad day’ is that the day is only bad because you keep proving it to yourself. If you would only stop the mind from that pronouncement and find a new statement like, ‘Today started off kind of hard for me, but from now on I am having a good day.’ Although one statement may not change the day one bit, it can reduce your stress!  Negative proclamations about the state of your life are very harmful to your peace of mind. What if the day is really, really, bad? What if something happens that feels devastating? Where can you turn for help?The first step when you feel really bad is to take deliberate slow deep breaths. Breathe in deep enough so that you can see your stomach moving out and expanding your chest as much as you can. Then, relax on the exhale with a big sigh. Slow deep breaths will calm the physiological responses to stress.           

The next step is to slow down your thinking. Identify what happened factually and then look at your thoughts about the situation. Identify what emotions you have related to your thoughts and to the facts. Your feelings about a situation are often different toward the facts than they are toward your own thoughts.For example, what if you are supposed to being going out with your husband for your anniversary and he has to work. Perhaps the emotions that are related to the fact that he has to work are a little sad and disappointed. But, your thought is that he chooses to work instead of spending time with you and that makes you feel angry and betrayed.Notice that the thoughts you have are often split second decisions that you make at the time. The main reason to slow down your thinking is to separate the facts from the issues. The mind judges automatically according to your issues. Issues are the psychological garbage that you carry around in your head awaiting to be aroused.Asking for help at this point is a great choice to make. If you can slow down your reaction sufficiently, you can ask the source of your problem for clarification, in this case, the husband.If you believe your judgmental thoughts one hundred percent, then you need to talk to someone else first. Who do you ask? You could ask God, your Higher Power, or your higher self, which is the part of you that is wise and loving. Ask for clarity to tell the difference between your issues and the facts. Or you can ask a therapist, minister or friend. But beware of asking someone with the same issues that you have! You need someone with clarity.You could actually have a sort of reverse problem.  In that case, you would make excuses for the person very fast and will not address a problem that really exists! Issues cloud your vision! Making excuses for others can create resentment.If you think you really know what is going on and feel very right, then definitely ask for help. It is almost certain that if you think you are right, making the other person wrong, then you are in war. War is not a loving choice. In the case of war, you are looking at the other person’s flaws and not seeing your contribution very clearly. Remember that your part is the only one that you can really change.Finally, it would be a very good idea to ask your own mind for a new thought, a new emotion and a new feeling. Even if it feels like a lie, create a fantasy about the loving thought, emotion and feeling. Within this expression, you can create a new reality of peace, love and compassion. Even if the situation does not turn out to be less than devastating for you, you will at least know in your heart, your mind and your body about the reality that you are willing to create. Focus on the peaceful, loving, compassionate life today with every breath, thought, emotion and feeling you have. It is in your most difficult hours that you need your own love and understanding the most. It is in these times that you can be held by an angelic connection to the divine. You will find it in your heart. 

Meditation:  Imagine that you sleeping soundly in your bed. Suddenly, you hear a loud noise. It is a thunderstorm and lightening has hit your house. You smell smoke and realize that the lightening has created a fire. Frantically, you dial 911.  When you get a person on the line, they put you on hold as soon as you say fire department! Impatiently, you run outside, grab the hose and turn on the water. All the time, you are thinking about the person on the line that put you on hold. “What is the matter with that person? What the heck is 911 for anyway?” As your mind goes on and on, you put out the very small fire by yourself. When you go back into the house and pick up the phone, the person comes back on the line.  You tell them you put out the fire, but you still have to give them all the information. You hang up the phone and take a deep breath. Sitting in a chair in a daze, you hear the sirens. The fire truck arrives and the firemen check your house to make sure that you are safe. “How did you get here so soon?” you ask. The reply is that the dispatcher from 911, identified the house and sent them in the first 30 seconds of the call. Take a long deep breath and relax. Help is always available, help from yourself and in your environment. The mind forgets that the Universe might be sending help sometimes.  May you always have the vision to see the help you need and the willingness to receive it. And may all your help bring you to peace, love and compassion. Love and Light,

Diane Donovan©06072000 

Find your home inside.  Retreat in the beautiful Sedona, Arizona area. The next Destiny is Spring 2009.  

Destiny - www.destinyretreats.com              Quotes of the Week 

“Earth hath no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.  – Thomas Moore 

“Every great man is always being helped by everybody; for his gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.”                                  – John Ruskin  “If one advances confidently in the directions of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”                                                                        – Henry David Thoreau                                                                        

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Volume  8 Issue 2

Destiny Finding Your Way Home

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Destiny 30 — September 26 -28, 2008 ENROLL TODAY

Manifest Your Intentions at Destiny in Sedona 

I am often asked, “What is a Spiritual Peace Minister?” The answer is not found in the mind because the mind is designed to look for trouble. The answer is found in the heart and in one’s connection to a Higher Power. I believe that when I live in my heart, in love and compassion, connecting to the divine, then I am radiating peace to the world. To be a Spiritual Peace Minister is to be devoted to staying in peace minute by minute throughout the day. As an ordained minister of peace, I am saying that I am committed to being a center for peace in the world.

     When you find the peaceful center and keep redirecting yourself to that spot, then you are offering the world the gift of peace.  Whatever you offer to others, you offer to yourself because we are all one.

      The mind in its endless quest for safety and satisfaction likes to be the ruler of your world. However in its rule, you can feel as if you will never be satisfied or safe because you can be thinking about problems instead of solutions. The mind has trouble with feeling vulnerable and feels safer creating walls.

     As you align your mind with your heart and your Higher Power, your mind becomes a tool rather than your boss. Your heart and your peaceful focus create the infinitelylasting satisfaction of giving and receiving love, of being a healer of your surroundings. Spiritual Peace Ministers are healers of the world by first being a healer within.  

     The world will never have peace when you cannot have inner peace and when your peace can be easily destroyed by every unpleasant event you encounter. Maintaining inner peace in the face of discord is simply a matter of finding your heart, of allowing your oneness with divine to be your center. Then you are a Spiritual Peacemaker and you are healing the world.

 Peace & Love,

 Diane Donovan  ©0808008

Meditation: Half close your eyes. Focus your consciousness on your mind and think about what your mind loves to do with itself. Breathe and Relax. Notice how you feel in your body when you focus on your mind and its activities. Breathe and Relax. Move your consciousness to your heart. Notice how you feel in your body when you focus on your heart. Exhale a long sighing exhale. Move your consciousness to your Higher Power. Notice what your mind talks about as you move your consciousness. Notice how your body feels when you focus on your Higher Power. Breathe and Relax. Imagine that you are connected with your Higher Power and that your heart can hear a whisper of divine peace, love and compassion. Imagine that you can send that feeling to the world around you. Breathe and relax as peace, love and compassion arrive back to your heart. Imagine that you can feel peace, love and compassion minute by minute the rest of your life. BREATHE

Quotations of the Day

“We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.”Anton Chekov

“When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.”  The Dalai Lama

“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.” John Lennon

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”Jimi Hendrix

Manifest Your Dreams

Enroll today for the Destiny Retreat in beautiful Sedona, Arizona area. The next Destiny is September 26-28, 2008. Space is limited.

Destiny - peace, love compassion

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Destiny -Finding Your Way Home 

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Destiny 30 – September 26 – 28, 2008

Uncover your Destiny in Sedona

AWAKENING FROM THE DREAM

            Ancient teachings from shamans and sages tell us that we are often asleep when we think that we are awake. What does this mean? Think about your daily life. You wake up and what happens? You get ready to accomplish your day. Even if you aren’t on a regular schedule like going to work or school, you have a daily life in which you assume that you are awake.           

             Here is an experiment to demonstrate part of what it means that you are asleep when you think that you are fully awake. When you wake up, what do you do? Now, what else is going on? Get on the floor and look all around as if you are two inches tall. Next, carefully stand on something and look around as if you are two feet taller. Do you still think that you are awake?           

            Sit down on your bed that you are assuming is solid and remember for a moment that everything you see is composed of atoms that look like tiny solar systems. They have star-like centers with orbiting electron clouds. In between this motion is space. And, these seemingly solid objects if you could look closely might appear as if they are composed of something like a thought. The bed you are sitting on is composed mostly of space or maybe it is simply energy! Your body is composed mostly of space as well! Do you still think that you are awake?           

           Next, look very closely at your body. You are composed of cells, human cells, right? Scientists say that we have more microbe cells than we have human cells on our bodies! Do you still think that you are awake?           

            In doing this experiment, you would still be in only one room. When the ancients say that you are asleep, perhaps they mean that you are forgetting about much of existence. This means that you are constantly limiting all of your experiences for convenience sake. But, for convenience sake, you may have lost the wonder and awe that exists in your next breath.           

           The next time that you wake up from your sleep to begin your day, look around a little more carefully. Ask your mind to notice a little more of your waking dreams! When you begin to wake up, negativity will lose its hold on you and you become one with peace, love and compassion. 

Meditation: Take a long deep breath and sigh with your exhale. Take another slow deep breath, inhaling as slowly as you possibly can and then, relax with a sigh as you exhale. Imagine that you are standing in a long line at a store. Imagine that you are the air that you are breathing. You are composed of many atoms of many elements. You may contain smoke from cigarettes and you have smells that the nose identifies as you enter the body. When you arrive in the lungs, you are quickly whisked into the cells of the body to be nourishment. As you continue on your journey, you are changing in composition and you now contain atoms that this body no longer needs. Part of you stays in the body and part of you leaves the body when you exhale.  Once you exist the body, you join other atoms, some of which would be grouped into what are known as humans. Breathe deeply and become one with your body again. Continue breathing the air that contains the discarded atoms of others.  Your breath contains atoms that have been here from throughout all of history. We all share one breath.  May you know the wonder and awe of being one with all of creation. May that knowledge inspire you to have more peace, love and compassion. Love and Light,

Diane Donovan

©08092000  Find your dreams. 

Fine yourself at the Destiny Retreat in the beautiful Sedona, Arizona area. The next Destiny is September 26- 28, 2008. Space is limited. Enroll today.

Destiny - peace through love and compassion

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Quotes of the Week “It’s life’s illusions I recall. I really don’t know life at all.” – Joni Mitchell”  “There is something beyond our mind which abides in silence within our mind. It is the supreme mystery beyond thought.    – Maitri Upanishad  

“What is life? It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is a breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is as the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”  –Crowfoot (Chief of the Blackfoot Indians) “Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you, will become plain to you.”    – The Nag Hammidi Library in English                                                                           

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Volume 5 Issue 1
Destiny Retreats

Finding Your Way Home

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Destiny 30– September 26-28, 2008 Enroll HERE. Join us in Sedona to focus on your intentions for your life!

Spiritual Peacemaking

Do you want more personal peace in your life? Do you want world peace? How will humans ever achieve peace in the world when every little upset seems to destroy our personal peace of mind?

It is a mistake to think that peaceful, laid back individuals are normal. Maybe they are lucky. Humans are equipped with great survival tactics and these reactions are not equally intense among individuals. The easy going among us may have a less reactive survival system. Those among us who super react to every little change are sort of high survivors!

Whatever system you have, however quickly it kicks into motion due to any change, you have the ability to be more than your reactions. The first step is to take the breath that has now commonly entered our everyday language as “breathe”. Although many will say to breathe, do you stop to think about why you need the air when you are entering your full blast reactions?

What happens when you get triggered? Notice that you will inhale quickly and your body becomes instantly tight. Exhale and relax every tense muscle. Request your body to relax and kindly request your mind to move its focus to breathing and relaxing. Now if a bus is bearing down on you or you are in some danger, these reactions do not need an intervention because they are saving your life. But if you are inhaling, getting tight and thinking aggressive thoughts because a coworker just ‘betrayed’ you, your spouse just forgot you, your child refused to move immediately or some other supposed insult, then you can breathe and stop thinking. DO NOT OPEN YOUR MOUTH TO SPEAK until you feel relaxed and you have asked your mind about its goal. Is the goal to hurt someone or get them to change or comply? You would benefit from looking a little harder for the peaceful goal.

Inner peace is achieved simply by breathing, relaxing and intending to find the peaceful solution. You do not need to work so hard to find peace when no one and nothing is bothering you but many times the only problem you have is what your brain is creating! The brain is a liar. Your brain is really trying to find an explanation and category for everything you encounter. It often looks in old categories and uses creative lies to make new events fit into old ideas. Even though your brain can be a wonderful servant, it is not a trustworthy boss and will torment gladly torment you day and night.

Remember, you can be the director of your brain. It is your tool. In order to find your inner self or higher self, look into your heart. The heart is connected to peace, love and compassion. Allow your heart to give your brain the task of aligning with your higher purpose in life. Ask your heart to bring peace of mind to the brain. The brain is like a three year old and the heart is like an angel setting loving limits on your childish thoughts.

As you experience more and more personal peace, you will find that your peace begins to grow around your personal space like a ripple spreads out around a stone tossed in a lake. Your peace creates peace in the world. You can never have peace by fighting war or by fighting yourself. Peace is found in your heart. It already exists beyond the noise of your thoughts inside your deepest center of being. Relax your body. Release your mental attachments to being right. Breathe into your heart and bring peace to the world.

Love & Gratitude,

Diane Donovan
©05122008

Quotes

“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.” – John Lennon, 1940-1980, British Rock Musician

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968, American Black Leader, Nobel Prize Winner, 1964 If you are receiving this Ezine as forwarded mail and wish to subscribe, please type the word subscribe as the subject in your reply.Please send submissions of articles and questions to: donovaughn@destinyretreats.comYou are receiving this Ezine as a gift. It is published weekly on Wednesday. The Destiny staff hopes that you will enjoy it! We welcome your comments & questions!

www.destinyretreats.com DESTINY RETREAT 30 – September 26 -28, 2008Find your dreams in Sedona at Destiny! 

FINDING AN ANSWER 

What are the questions that you are asking? Where are you looking for the answers?In your life, you are moving in a direction even if you are sitting in your house. The movement of your life implies that you are attempting to answer questions. The questions would be where are you going and why are going there? Perhaps an even more pertinent question would be why are you here to be asking the questions?If you take a long look at your whole life, you will see that it has always been pointed in certain directions. At some points along the way, you will find that you have been redirected. These points of redirection are choice points, places where you can make new decisions about your direction in life. Sometimes you choose a direction that will take you to an abyss, like the path that takes you down a dark lonely road.Sometimes you choose a direction that will take you to bliss, like the sight of a glowing sunset over the ocean.Other times you could feel completely lost as if life is doing all the choosing for you. At those times you may turn to escape methods or hopefully seek the help of others. You may begin asking God for help. Whether you are consciously looking for a direction or not, at certain times, another person will arrive and give you a few words of wisdom. These words can send you on a new direction toward a goal that you could never have achieved without those words. Much later, when you look back, you can see that these people appeared as angels in your life sending you to a life of meaning.As you look back, notice all the people who gave your life a meaningful direction. You can mentally send that person a little gratitude when you remember the help that they gave you.If you remember that some people in your past helped to redirect your life into painful choices such as the first one that offered you a cigarette or gave you the first beer that started you on a life of drinking, then this is a place of forgiveness. You can mentally send that person some forgiveness when you remember the choice that they offered.Finding the answers to your questions is the result of looking at your life like a movie. Look at the choices you have made and when you made them. When you look at everything that has happened in your life, what lessons do you think you are trying to learn and where do you think you are going? The answers to these questions lie in all the little choices that you have made all along. Today is a new day! With what choice would you like to begin today? Feeling lost?  Look within your heart for the direction.  Someday, today will be the direction with which you chose to create tomorrow. Today you can choose peace for your world. 

Meditation:  Half close your eyes. Take a deep breath allowing your chest and stomach to rise. Relax and exhale through your heart, gently and effortlessly. Imagine that you are walking on a path winding up a hill. This hill has canyons on both sides and is covered with bristlecone pine trees. It is a hot day, but you have water. Have a drink of water as you walk. The altitude is a little high for you and you begin to feel a little winded by this walk. Breathing heavily, you press on up the hill looking for the end of the path. As you walk, looking for the end, you suddenly feel unable to go on. Stop and sit down under a pine tree. Ask the pine tree to give you some energy. As you ask, the tree gives you the energy you need to finish the walk. As you reach the end of the path, you are disappointed to see that nothing happens. The trail simply goes back a different way like a big circle. Somberly, you turn around to return back the way you came. As you reach the pine tree that gave you the energy, you stop. Resting on top of a branch is a strange looking rock. Reach over and pick it up. As you pick it up, the rock speaks to you. “The answer to your question is that the path is where you will find all your answers, not at the end of the path. The path is the answer.” Take a deep breath and relax. 

May you find all the answers to all your questions. May all your answers be peaceful, loving and compassionate. 

Love and Light,Diane Donovan©0531 2000    

Find your dreams. Become one at the DESTINY RETREAT in the beautiful Sedona, Arizona area. The next destiny is September 13-16, 2008. ENROLL HERE. Space is limited.www.destinyretreats.com              Quotes of the Week 

“. . .in following the inner guide you will feel more whole, more integrated, as if you are moving outwards from the very center of your being. If you go with it, this beam of light will carry you exactly where you need to go.” - Osho  

“A real man acts spontaneously. If you ask him a question, your question gets a response, not a reaction. He opens his heart to your question, exposes himself to your question, responds to it . . .”                                                                        - Osho  

                                                                        If you are receiving this Ezine as forwarded mail and wish to subscribe, please type the word subscribe as the subject in your reply.  

Please send submissions of articles and questions to: donovaughn@destinyretreats.com. 

You are receiving this Ezine as a gift. It is published weekly on Wednesday. The Destiny staff hopes that you will enjoy it! We welcome your comments & questions!

Seeking Volunteers for Meditation Research

Volunteers are sought to participate in a Ph.D. dissertation research study at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Benyshek.  This research study focuses on the relationship between meditation practices and immune function.

Volunteers must be healthy individuals aged 18 to 60 years and meet several other health related criteria.  Volunteers in this minimally invasive study will be trained in a specific meditation technique and receive a meditation CD upon completion.  

Participation in this study will require a 1 hour orientation followed by a daily (Mon –Fri) 1 hour meditation session conducted on campus for 3 consecutive weeks (15 days).

If you are interested in participating in this study please contact RASCstudy@aol.com  

________________

M. Diane Hardgrave
Medical Anthropologist
Department of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
4505 Maryland Parkway, Box 455003
Las Vegas, Nevada 89154

www.destinyretreats.com  DESTINY  30 – September 26- 28, 2008Align your life with your higher purpose in Sedona at the Destiny Retreat! ENROLL HERE SATISFACTION

Are you looking for satisfaction? Where are you looking?           

It is said that happiness is found within but oftentimes when you look within, you find pain. The reason that you may find pain or discomfort is because over the years you may have had many disappointments and negative experiences, which you have chosen to ignore. Maybe you thought you would get around to it all later.           

 In therapy, we say that you are stuffing your issues in your psychological garbage can. You may ask, “What is wrong with that? You can’t deal with everything can you?”           

What is wrong with stuffing issues in your garbage can is that the can eventually gets full. And when it gets full, you could feel like a basket case. Some people call this experience a nervous breakdown or you feel like you are going crazy.  You are not going crazy but the sooner you begin processing and letting go of the garbage, the better. Buried beneath the painful experiences of life you will find love in your heart.  It is within the heart that you will experience satisfaction and peace.           

Too often, you are so busy looking for satisfaction away from your insides because of the pain you have disregarded. You are looking for a numbing agent or the excitement agent to distract you from your pain. Remember distraction from the pain does not in any way alleviate the core issues you have stored inside.            

Only by accepting, feeling, integrating and letting go of the pain will you find peace of mind. Then you can go inside to a place that holds happiness. Not only will you find peace, but also you will find love. When you find love, your heart will open.            

When the heart opens, you may feel pain again because it is an unused muscle. Exercise your heart continually and one day, you will find compassion. Then, you will never be able to lose satisfaction again. For within compassion, you become one with all creation. Becoming one, your life expands beyond any trivial distraction you ever found outside yourself. Your life then becomes one of endless satisfaction and peace.  Meditation: You are walking on a cobbled street in the middle of a town. The street is no longer used for cars. Now it is a place for street vendors. They sell everything you can imagine including delicious, exotic and gourmet food, alcohol and caffeine infusions, colorful trinkets, art, clothing, souvenirs and more. As you look around, you become fascinated with the variety of sensory pleasures. You begin to think if I have this it will make me happy. If I have that, it will make me happy. If only I had unlimited supplies of money, I could have all of this and that. As you continue to walk, you notice a place at the end of the street with a bench facing an ocean. Feeling somewhat over stimulated and tired, you sit down to rest. The sun is beginning to set and is glistening off the water. As you sit and look at the sun, your heart feels content. Breathe in the contentment. The sunset is a gift for opening your heart to satisfaction. Breathe and relax. 

May you find  satisfaction within your heart today. And may you remember the peace, love and compassion that you are seeking is within. Love and Light,

Diane Donovan© 05242000    

Find your dreams. Become one at the DESTINY RETREAT in the beautiful

The next Destiny is September 26-28, 2008. ENROLL HERE  www.destinyretreats.com             

Quotes of the Week 

LOVING EACH DAY “When you seek out in the world for happiness or peace, you are moving into patterns of self-denial because you are, in actuality, saying that peace does not reside naturally within yourself.  So you come from a consciousness of lack, and lack is the result.   When you go into the outer world seeking peace, you are looking for sensation.  Sensation, for a short time, can assuage the yearning for peace.  It can distract you momentarily, but it’s not long before the sensations of the world stupefy your physical senses, and you find yourself automatically retreating back toward yourself.  

You find yourself yearning for peace.”– From LOVING EACH DAY  by John Roger                          If you are receiving this Ezine as forwarded mail and wish to subscribe, please type the word subscribe as the subject in your reply.  Please send submissions of articles and questions to: donovaughn@destinyretreats.comYou are receiving this Ezine as a gift. It is published weekly on Wednesday. The Destiny staff hopes that you will enjoy it! We welcome your comments & questions!