I Choose to be Happy
It's kind of clichéed to say “everything happens for a reason”, but I truly believe that as spiritual beings having a physical experience, this holds a lot of truth.
Furthermore, I think we probably even had a hand in designing our lifetimes—with its various conditions both good and bad, joyful and painful—in order to learn and experience some particular aspect about Who We Are. Each lifetime, a roundabout way of remembering that we come from, are part of, and ultimately return to Universal Source as experienced through goodness knows how many lives, choices, stories and experiences. Seriously awe inspiring and overwhelming all at the same time, and a marvel really at how powerful we truly are as the architects of our own stories and experiences.
The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have.—Pema Chodron
It’s all about the journey.
All of our stories, all of our gathered experiences ultimately seem to leave us clearly with a choice: to fully engage with and perpetuate our roles or perhaps to take a step back and realize that we are not our stories and experiences but merely players in the grand story of life. To me, that awareness is empowering, because as a player you have a CHOICE, you have free will to decide how you want to respond and how you want to play given your set of circumstances.
So Campanula is Latin for “Little Bell” and sitting with her I swear you can hear her ringing. Ringing in abundance. Not the physical aspects of abundance—food, housing, money or other earthly necessities, but more the spiritual nature of abundance. The limitless, light, expansive energy, and unconditional eternal love that is who we truly are—and our alignment with this in our everyday, finite human stories.
It is that knowledge of ourselves as limitless which allows us to fully participate in the everyday joys of life. The joy is inside of us, and to live it you have to believe in it and make the choice to align with it.
When we can tap into that sense of abundance it really helps put all of our earthly woes into perspective. That has been my experience with it in any case.
Some of the main archetypal stories of my life have been playing part-time mother martyr and starring as Cinderella, complete with gobs of self-pity and a wicked (or at least challenging stepmother relationship) and a deep desire to hide, quietly cleaning up ashes.
I thought it was easier to remain hidden and quiet and that by doing so I wouldn't draw any negative attention to myself. I could even avoid pain and confrontation perhaps. Unfortunately, I got so covered in dirty ashes that I couldn’t recognise myself anymore...and in fact, the weight of all the ashes was unbearably painful.
It is easy in this situation to take on the role of victim and lay blame for my predicament on others, and I did do this for some time. I even spent a good deal of time waiting for someone to rescue me...to wave their magic wand and make everything better. The problem with this choice though was that it took away all MY power to create positive change and to heal. So that even though it was scary, the only way for me to heal and grow was to make the choice to stand up and wash off the ashes myself.
I am not Cinderella, and I don’t have to play that part if I don’t want to.
I chose instead to empower myself.
Firstly through gratitude for all the countless blessings in my life (POSITIVE THOUGHTS). Secondly, by finding the courage to speak my truth (EMPOWERING WORDS). And lastly, by finding the story that truly made my heart sing—focusing on the plants, my art and the joy I feel when I am working with both (INSPIRED ACTIONS). These aligned actions, led to new inspirations, the courage to express them and the growth of my Soulflower work—which is of course me. Or at least the expression of me in this lifetime. This is true spiritual abundance.
This is not a finite story. There is a beginning and an ending, in this lifetime, but how the story plays out, how it develops and grows is truly up to me. That is not to say that I have control over the details at all, but I do have control over how I react and respond to the details. AND I can focus (most of the time) on the bigger picture, with gratitude, recognizing all that I have achieved and how much I have grown as an individual, as an artist, as a mother and as a human being in this lifetimes’ expression, this journey of self-discovery. This is my CHOICE. I choose to be well. I choose to be happy. I choose to be and to grow into the greatest expression of myself in this lifetime, whatever that will be.
Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily. Life is but a dream.
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Melanie
July 13, 2017
Loves reading this. I believe it may have sparked something in me to, finally, at 46 begin to take control of my life. I plan on going to your event at ODonels in Aug.