So often we face situations that are baffling, confusing or unwanted. Yet, in every one of them, there’s a special, perhaps unique invitation. Our focus today is the important question: What’s the invitation in these situations, events and circumstances that enter our lives?

In fact, every moment in life is an invitation! Our soulful self is always inviting us to fuller life, richer growth, dynamic expansion and further awakening. We’re programmed to look at these circumstances through the eyes of our judgments (“This isn’t good.”) and desires (“I don’t like this.”), but we can also view them through the eyes of our wise and knowing soul. Here, we discover that every circumstance carries a special plan, divine design and sacred invitation.

I’d like to invite us to two approaches that can help us enormously in grasping the invitation of any circumstance: openness and ownership.

To help ourselves be open to the invitation, we might try simply sitting in the middle of our soulful center and uttering the words: “I am open and receptive to the truth and wisdom of this moment.” Also, it can be most helpful to own that I am an intimate part of the creation of every circumstance in my life. So, to assert that “Nothing is ever done to me” and “I co-create every element of my life, even if it doesn’t feel at all good” can prepare me to meet and grasp the deeper invitations with clarity.

I now invite you to two profound invitations—present in every situation in which you find yourself. Side by side with the obvious invitations, your soul is always inviting you to:

•    become the very creative power that brought forth each circumstance; in short, you are the very power of all creation.

•    love every part of the circumstance; feel the love in the mystery; find the love that carries the gift.

I close with the following prayer and blessing for you:

May you always be blessed with events whose beauty you can see!

May the circumstances of your life bring you the power and love you deserve! 

May your life know firsthand the gift that each moment offers you!

May you always treasure each creation as a loving kiss of nature!

May each moment invite you into yourself more fully and wondrously!

May every condition of life bring you the peace that already lives in your core!

May the divine source ever support your receptivity to its sublime invitations!

May all the invitations of your life add up to one grand explosion of love—forever!

lovingly presented by Bill Bauman ~

Just as the King of Siam (in The King and I) expressed a bewildered “Is a puzzlement!” in relation to feelings of love, so do many of us about this thing called relationships.

The truth is that we are in relationship with something, every moment of every day—our alarm clock, clothes, schedule, projects, thoughts, friends, etc. Everything here on earth is about intimate, bonded relationships. Everywhere we turn, we’re connected intimately to something or someone.

The underlying reason for this phenomenon is, of course, because at the core we are all one … and human relatedness reminds us of our shared unity.

So, if you feel inclined, ask yourself questions such as: What is my relationship with the air that I’m breathing right now … or with money … or with my morning’s alarm clock … or your body … or this very moment?

An important question is this: What is your natural style for being in relationship. For me (Bill), for example, while I started my life being in a fearful relationship with almost every aspect of life,  I evolved to discover that my natural style is to be in a loving, peaceful, oneness-based and fun relationship with everything around me. What kind of relationships does your nature call you to?

In this talk I invited each person to a relationship experience. Feel free to join that experience while reading this, if you wish. The experience is this:

•    Call to your inner self a person or aspect of life that you want to experience a private and personal “moment” with;

•    Instead of trying to take charge, just let whatever happens happen;

•    Observe and notice how the person or aspect takes charge; let that develop or evolve as it will;

•    Allow yourself to merge and unify with that person or aspect, then ask yourself: How does that feel to me?

Today’s talk concluded with a statement of fact and an invitation: 

•    You and I are in relationship with everything—one that is interactive and interdependent;

•    In each relationship you play a special role; you come alive and bring others alive; you complete and are completed by those around you;

•    You and I are one; you are me and I am you; this allows the magic of life to happen naturally and organically;

•    Embrace your relationship with everything … embrace the strong role that you play in each moment … embrace the wonder of creation that happens simply because you are consciously, willingly, creativlely and powerfully in relationship.

lovingly presented by Bill Bauman

In our CSL handout entitled “The Soul Is …” I’ve described soul as “our endless source of nurturing,” “a wellspring of inner peace,” and as where “we feel the divine living, resting and loving within us.” The German word, Quelle, translated in English as Source, describes beautifully the “Elohim” or sourceful quality of the divine.  Our further human evolution of consciousness has brought us even more to the experience of that Source not just as alive “out there,” but in the inner fabric of our human selves.

Soul—your soul and mine—is our personal portal to this amazing infinite source. Soul—or anima in Latin and Italian—is our precious human word that describes the Spirit-filled wonder of Life—a presence that can lead us personally to our Source.

This month’s talk takes us on a journey—through soul into Source. As guiding words to this journey, the following words were spoken:

•    Your soul is where this awesome Source lies and rests, waiting for you to reach out and find it, touch it, embrace it, and taste it

•    Your soul is the birth canal or black hole through which all Life is accessible … the womb or nest in which Source is waiting for you, now

•    Source is where we find inner peace … where there’s no drama, no right and wrong, no fault-finding … where there’s nothing to do except to be

•    Source is our home, our roots, our alpha and omega

•    Source is where we awaken to our total oneness with all Life

•    Finally, Source is you, and you are Source. It’s who we are!

Once we accept our complete unity with and identity in Source, our lives change dramatically:

•    Our perception starts noticing things we’ve never seen before

•    We notice perfection where we thought there was problem

•    We start seeing everything through the eyes of the divine

•    We uncover and discover God everywhere, in every circumstance

Today’s talk concluded with a personal story—about you (and us, and me):

•    At your human birth, you forgot your Source. You felt separate and alone, so you tried to be a good human being

•    After awhile you started searching for your Source. First, you found it “out there,” then later discovered it more intimately within yourself

•    Yet you kept searching. Finally—right about now—you discovered that Source was not only within you, it was and is you. You owned it fully, became and lived it fully, and (of course!) “lived happily ever after.”

Finally, I ask that allow yourself to receive the double gift of permission and authority—to own your nature as Source, to live as Source, to be Source in every action and interaction, to be you—powerfully, unabashedly and fully.