Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Mirror

I'm still playing around with this concept and different angles. Here's the latest development.

Let's be brave

Thought for the week

Making a decision to go in a new direction does require bravery. We are stepping towards the unknown and hoping that it will be to a better place. There are times when we need to be brave and stand up for what we believe. We are here now. We have survived everything to get to this point. Whatever we've done up to this moment in our existence has brought us to where we are now. It might be time to look around and see where we are. How do we feel about our lives at the moment?
Are we happy?
What challenges do we have?
Do we feel overwhelmed?
Do we feel at peace with the world?
Do we know the direction we are going in?
What changes would we like to make in our lives?

Making a decision to go in a new direction does require bravery. We are stepping towards the unknown and hoping that it will be to a better place. We have to be brave enough to take the next step. We decide what direction we go in. Our choice may be right, okay or wrong. Whatever the results we will learn something. When we come to make a similar decision again we will have that experience to refer to.

Into a corner
There may come a time when circumstance drive us into a corner. To move in any direction we have to step out of our comfort area and into the unknown. This happens when the pain of staying where we are becomes worse than the pain of taking a step into a new area.
If we can be brave enough to make a decision or choice before we get to this point, we will have a little more control of ourselves and our choices. It will also get us into the position of being able to make similar decisions in other areas of our lives. Making choices can require us to be brave initially but after we have done it a few times it becomes part of the way we deal with life.

Adapt as we learn
Sometimes when we've made a great effort to change, we become attached to the results and want them to stay that way forever. Once we've lived a few decades in this life we realise that “forever” is just an illusion. Everything changes. We have to be brave and accept these changes.
We need to adapt as we learn. We need the humility to change when we discover new information which changes what we thought was true up to that point. Life keeps changing around us and we need to be flexible and brave enough to change with it.

Change it
The next time we come across something in our lives which would benefit from a change we should change it. When we get into the practice of make small changes around us it will make it easier for us to make bigger changes. We can see how the small changes have benefited a situation and this will make it easier to be brave enough to make bigger changes. We learn by doing.

Be brave with your life, be brave with your love.
*Ed Parkinson

Need more brave words? You'll find more on the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Brave Quotes

“Only the brave and adventuresome find God, never the timid.”
Harold Klemp

“He who is brave is free.”
Seneca

“Some have been thought brave because they didn't have the courage to run away.”
Proverb

“Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.”
Erica Jong

“Tell a man he is brave, and you help him to become so.”
Thomas Carlyle

“Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”
Mary Tyler Moore

“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”
Billy Graham

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.”
Aristotle

“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.”
Thomas Paine

“Against change of fortune set a brave heart.”
French Proverb

“...perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.”
Rainer Maria Rilke

"We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.”
Helen Keller

Looking for more brave inspirational quotes? You'll find them on the Spiritual Inspirations page by clicking here.

Mirror

Mirror, is the working title for this piece. At this point I'm not sure of the concept behind it but by playing around with different angles and views I hope to stumble upon it. Watch this space to see if it develops any further.

Love is all we need

Thought for the week

No matter what belief system we have, we all believe in love. We yearn for and appreciate the love we receive from our family and friends. Anyone who has fallen in love knows the hight of joy it can bring. We also know that giving love to others has the benefit of bringing joy to us as well.

If we believe in any type of a Higher Power, the Universe, a Divine Creator or whatever name we wish to use, and we ask ourselves the question, Why has It created these worlds with us in it and how does it maintain them? The simple answer is Love. The Higher Power loves us so much that It has given us free will to do as we wish. We are in the University of Life. It is part of the process where we eventually realise who we are and then try to discover what the Higher Power is and begin working with it.

The essence of life
The essence of life is Love, that force which maintains our worlds, keeps the planets spinning and helps run the automatic systems of our body such as our breathing and heart beat. While we are constantly moving in this life-force we are rarely aware of it. We are so lost in living our physical outer lives that we have difficulty seeing the love in our lives. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.

Love is all we need
Love is all we need but we also need things like air, water, food, security and protection from the elements to survive in this physical world. All these are supplied by love. Air by the love of the plants and nature which absorbs our carbon monoxide and gives us back oxygen. Food comes form animals and plants, another gift from the Life-force. Security initially comes from our family as we develop from children into adults. We also have the police and army to protect society in general. We have our homes to protect us from the elements.

These are all gifts of service by others to us. They are supplied as a service to society. Service is a form of love which we humans practice. We cannot give our warm love to everyone but we can be of service. Whatever we work at we provide a service of some sort. Our work is of benefit to someone and makes their life easier. Giving service is giving love. It's the way we can give love to many without draining ourselves emotionally.

The services of others
Whatever we do or work at provides a service of some sort. Whether we clean the streets, make bread, add numbers, teach, cook, look after children or adults, we are being of service, we are giving love. All we need to survive is supplied by the services of others, by the love of others. We all need the services that others supply to us, we all need their love.

Loving what we do
Doing what we love and loving what we do is one of the ways we can have a constant supply of love in our lives. If we can get ourselves into a positions where we love what we do, we will be giving love to those who are around us. How many times have we noticed and appreciated something that has been done well? There is love in a job well done. It has that beauty added to it by the energy of love which the maker or creator has used in its making. Whether it is a clean street, a well kept garden, a nicely prepared meal, a beautiful building or an inspiring picture, they are all products of love by the person or people who helped create them.

Let's not forget the beauty around us in the flowers, plants and landscapes. The morning sunrise, the white clouds against a blue sky, the sunlight through the trees, the dramatic sunsets and the starry nights. All beautiful loving creations of the Divine for our pleasure and enjoyment. When we look at the beauty in life around us we are seeing Love in action.

To live in this life, love is all we need. The love is there already, we just need to turn up our awareness to see it. Love is in the natural beauty in our environment, it's in the beautiful creations which man makes, it's in the services provided to us by our family, friends, co-workers and suppliers. It's in the things and supplies we use every day in our lives. When we look at living our lives, with this viewpoint, we soon discover that love is all we need.

Wishing you a life of love.

*Ed Parkinson

Love is all we need but a little more inspirational writings may help. Click here to read more.

Inspirational Love Quotes

“Begin with the love you have. Love gratefully. This love expands your heart into a greater vessel which can hold even more love.”
Harold Klemp

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”
Mother Teresa

“There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. It is God's finger on man's shoulder.”
Charles Morgan

“Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.”
Eric Fromm

“Love has no desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.”
Kahlil Gibran

“Let your love be like the misty rains, coming softly, but flooding the river.”
Malagasy Proverb

“Do I love you because you're beautiful,
Or are you beautiful because I love you?”
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

“The lover is a monotheist who knows that other people worship different gods but cannot himself imagine that there could be other gods.”
Theodor Reik

“Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.”
Peter Ustinov

“Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.”
Boethius

“Who, being loved, is poor?”
Oscar Wilde

“Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame.”
Henry David Thoreau

“A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never outgrows it.”
Frank A. Clark

“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
Robert Heinlein

“Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.”
Jean Anouilh

“Love is like dew that falls on both nettles and lilies.”
Swedish Proverb

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”
Henry Van Dyke

“Only in love are unity and duality not in conflict.”
Rabindranath Tagore

“It is astonishing how little one feels alone when one loves.”
John Bulwer

“'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark our coming, and look brighter when we come.”
Lord Byron

“Love never reasons but profusely gives; gives, like a thoughtless prodigal, its all, and trembles lest it has done too little.”
Hannah More

 

You'll find more Love quotes in the Spiritual Inspirations page by clicking here. 

 

Sky Harbour

The competition on www.ImagineFX.com has now closed and I've submitted a final picture for the competition. The voting has started and if you'd like to vote for my picture or any of the other entries, you'll find the details in this link:
http://community.imaginefx.com/forums/1/384042/ShowThread.aspx

To vote you will have to register but that is free. Here's the process:
Click on Reply on a forum post and a Log In window will open.
In the top right of this window there is a “Register here” text and link. Click this and fill in your details.
If nothing happens when you click the submit button, go back up the page and you may find some fields may need to be filled in. They will be marked with a small re asterisk.
After registering check your InBox for an email from ImagineFX containing an activation link that you must click to make your new account go live. If you cannot see the email after a few minutes, then please carefully check inside your Junk and Spam email boxes.
Once you have clicked the activation link, you will be able to login and vote.
To vote, just click on the Reply button in a post and a new window will open. Enter your choice as you you see fit and thank you for taking the trouble to vote.

Lots of Love
*Ed

 

Let's be our own hero

Thought for the week

What is a hero? What comes to mind when we think of the word “hero”? Is it a comic book superhero, a star from the cinema or a person we admire? Generally we look at others as heroes, we rarely consider ourselves. When we look at our own lives, if we have lived any number of years, we have probably being through a number of tough times, challenges and near impossible situations. Here we are now, having survived all those battles. If others knew what we have been through, they might think of us as heroes.

The final goal is love
We are born into life like soldiers dropped behind enemy lines and we have to fight our way through numerous battles to get to our homeland again. The battles we face are specific to us. They will test us and develop us in areas we are unfamiliar with. The whole objective of this training is to make us more skilled in dealing with the changes life is constantly going through and to help us deal with the Souls we meet in a loving and compassionate way. While it seems to start off like a battle the final goal is love and peace.
This love and peace is something that happens within ourselves more than in our outer material world. It is one of the paradoxes of life that we are fighting our battles in our outer world so we can have peace within ourselves. Our outer world is the stage where we act out the various scenes of our lives, where we try to find solutions and ways of dealing with challenges and fears. The peace and satisfaction we receive from completing a task happens within ourselves.

Battles we have come through
If we look back on our life, we will have a number of battles we have come through. There will be some we have lost but there will a lot we have won. For example:
Getting through the educational system
Moving from school to work.
Earning a wage
Dealing with a difficult relationship
Finding a good friend
Being able to cook a meal
Overcoming an illness
Dealing with a fear

Once we get into the habit of seeing life as a training ground we then get a more objective and detached view of our challenges. This detached view also helps us appreciate what we have achieved and see the hero within. As our challenges are usually unique and targeted at us in such a way that we will learn the most, they will often be very difficult for us.

Some challenges may seem simple to others but very difficult to us, such as, crossing a road, greeting someone, apologising to someone, telling someone “I love you” or forgiving them. Little things can be huge obstacles to some people. If we overcome these challenges we have earned a medal on the battlefield of life. This achievement is something we are aware of and hardly noticed by others.

Take time to look back 
Let's take time now to look back on our lives and the challenges we have overcome to get us to this point. There will be failures but also a lot successes. Just focus on the successes so that we can appreciate what we have achieved. Looking at the difficulties we have overcome we begin to see that we are a bit of a hero. We have got ourselves to this point in life. We have taken some brave decisions, overcome major obstacles and beaten some of our fears. We still have challenges, fears and battles to fight, but we are have achieved a lot and we will achieve more. We are heroes, we are brave and we will find the love and peace we seek within ourselves.

Wishing you the love and peace of a hero.

*Ed Parkinson


Read more inspiring spiritual writings for the hero within by clicking here.

Hero Quotes

“The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men.”
Henry David Thoreau

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”
Joseph Campbell

“A coward is a hero with a wife, kids, and a mortgage.”
Marvin Kitman

“True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.”
Alfred North Whitehead

“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes.”
Walter M. Schirra, Sr.

“The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light.”
Felix Adler

“A boy doesn't have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around.”
E.W. Howe

“Not the glittering weapon fights the fight, but rather the hero's heart.”
Proverb

“A hero is someone who rebels or seems to rebel against the facts of existence and seems to conquer them. Obviously that can only work at moments. It can't be a lasting thing. That's not saying that people shouldn't keep trying to rebel against the facts of existence. Someday, who knows, we might conquer death, disease and war.”
Jim Morrison

“Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.”
Peter S. Beagle

“Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”
Henry Miller

“We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story.”
Mary McCarthy

“The world needs heroes and it's better they be harmless men like me than villains like Hitler.”
 Albert Einstein

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of”
Helen Keller

“Nurture your minds with great thoughts, to believe in the heroic makes heroes.”
Benjamin Disraeli

“It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes.”
Louis Pasteur

“Poets and heroes are of the same race, the latter do what the former conceive.”
Alphonse de Lamartine


The Spiritual Inspirations page has more heroic quotes for a hero like you. Just click here.

Sky Harbour

Here's the latest development of the picture, Sky Harbour. I've changed it from being landscape to portrait shape. This view gives more room to explain what is going on.

Understanding our Inner Worlds

Thought for the week

What are our inner worlds? Where are they? We could say, anything that happens within ourselves is happening in our inner worlds. Things like our thoughts, memories, emotions, intuitions, plans, desires, imagination, day dreams and dreams. Most of these work within ourselves simultaneously.

For example, if we are planning to get some food in the nearby shops we may have these elements working simultaneously:
Thoughts – thinking about what to get at the shops.
Memories – remembering where we got an item previously.
Emotions – when we come across an item which reminds us of an incident during a meal the emotions we felt then may come back to us again.
Intuitions – as we go through our shopping list we may get the idea to include something unusual, just because it feels right.
Plans – if we are getting different items in different shops we will be planning where we go first, how we get there and back.
Desires – there may be some items we would like to get but we may be limited by our budget or the availability of the item, but we still desire it.
Imagination – while thinking about the items we will get, we may use our imagination to see how we would cook, prepare or combine the items to make a meal.
Daydreams – we may also get lost in a daydream as we think about going around the shops, what if we meet someone? Where will we go? As we wonder about this we drift off into a daydream.

Understanding Ourselves
That is a lot of stuff happening in our inner worlds, all at the same time. Most of the time it all happens automatically and we are only conscious of the main inner activity, which is usually our thoughts, memories or plans. Our desires, intuition, imagination, daydreams and dreams tend to slip in very subtly almost as an intrusion on our thoughts. Our thoughts see these as intrusions because they are not logical and interrupt its control of our attention. However the subtler sides of ourselves can often bring us joy and happiness as we remember happy events or drift off in a daydream to other places.

Understanding our Mind
To be able to explore our inner worlds we must first take control of our mind. If our lives are run on a logical basis, in an ordered fashion without much change, our mind may be the controlling element in our lives. This can be okay as it will help make things easy and automatic for us but it can prevent us from exploring and discovering new things. A lot of what happens in our inner worlds is not logical so the mind often dismisses it straight away as illogical and therefore not important.
Continuing with our shopping example above. While going through the things we need we may recall something a friend recommended to us which would benefit our health. Our mind may dismiss it with thoughts like “There is no proof that it will help,” or “The health problem is caused by ageing, there is nothing that can be done.” To keep the mind satisfied we can say “I know this isn't logical but it is something I want to try to see if it might help”. The mind now has a logical explanation for our 'illogical' behaviour and will usually accept that explanation.

Understanding our Intuition
Our intuition is often the source of the illogical messages or suggestions, most of which will help us if we have the awareness to accept them and put them into action. Our intuition is above the mind and is closely connected to our higher happy self Soul. Soul is the true part of ourselves which lives in the moment and has an overview of our whole life, past, present and future. From this viewpoint It can see what is best for us and sends messages to us via our intuition.

The messages from Soul can come to us in a variety of forms, such as:
Intuition - we “feel” something is right or we get an undeniable urge to do something because it feels right.
Waking Dreams - a series of incidents or coincidences point us in a particular direction or leads us to a certain conclusion.
Golden Tongue Wisdom – a headline or a word jumps out at us to give us an answer to a question. We could also hear something on the radio or in a conversation which seems aimed just at us.

How do we become more aware of our Inner Worlds?
The first step is to recognise that our inner worlds exist. They have always been there but we may not have been aware of them. The next thing is to watch for the information and messages. One of the best ways of boosting our awareness is the spend time in our inner worlds. One of the easiest ways is to contemplate for ten to twenty minutes a day.

We can do this by taking time to be on our own. We get into a comfortable position, close our eyes and take a few deep breaths and sing the word Hu (pronounced like “hue”) or any other sacred word we prefer. As we sing we can listen to the sounds around us and let our mind drift from one thought to another, We can wonder about things but don't let any thoughts become too emotional or cause us concern. If we can focus on the love or kindness in an issue we will have a pleasant time.
By contemplating like this we begin to explore our inner worlds and get to know them. After a while we will get insights into some of the things happening in our daily life. At this point our inner world helps with our outer world.

Journal 
When we get into the habit of doing a regular contemplation it can be a good idea to have note pad or journal beside us where we can take notes of ideas or insights we come across. The act of writing or drawing something we've seen in our inner worlds helps to bring it into our outer world and make it more practical.

Wishing you happy explorations in your inner worlds which should bring you more understanding about your outer world.

*Ed Parkinson

If you'd like more insights into your inner worlds, visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

A view of our Inner Worlds

Exhibitions opens TODAY,  Tuesday, 24th April in the Ranelagh Arts Centre, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland.
The Opening Reception is from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Exploring our Inner Worlds - Artist's Talk
Come along on Saturday 28th April at 2pm, when Ed Parkinson will share his insights about exploring our inner worlds. He will also have a few simple techniques to helps you being exploring your own inner worlds.

Exhibition
The exhibition is open Tuesday 24th to Saturday 28th April from 12pm to 7pm each day.
Call in for the opening reception on Tuesday at 6.30pm or the Artist's Talk on Saturday at 2.00pm or between opening times during the week.

 

Spiritual Jokes

An email from God
One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the evil that was going on. He decided to send an angel down to Earth to check it out. So he called on a female angel and sent her to Earth for a time. 
When she returned she told God, yes it is bad on Earth, 95% is bad and 5% is good. Well, he thought for a moment and said maybe I had better send down a male angel; to get both points of view. So God called a male angel and sent him to Earth for a time.
When the male angel returned he went to God and told him yes, the Earth was in decline, 95% was bad and 5% was good. God said this was not good.
He decided to E-mail the 5% that were good and encourage them a little, something to help them keep going.
Do you know what that E-mail said?
.
..
...
... Oh! You didn't get one either huh?


Bill Gates met God
Bill Gates met God, and God said, "Well, Bill, I'm really confused on this one. I'm not sure whether to send you to Heaven or to Hell. After all, you enormously helped society by putting a computer in almost every home in the world, and yet you created that ghastly Windows. I'm going to do something I've never done before. I'm going to let you decide where you want to go."

Bill Gates said, "What's the difference between the two?"

God said, "It might help you decide if you took a peek at both places. Shall we look at Hell first?"

Bill was amazed. He saw a clean, white sandy beach with clear waters. There were thousands of beautiful men and women running around, playing in the water, laughing and frolicking about. The sun was shining and the temperature was perfect. "This is great!" said Bill. "If this is Hell, I can't wait to see Heaven."

God said, "Let's go!" and off they went to Heaven.

Bill saw puffy white clouds in a beautiful blue sky, with angels drifting about playing harps and singing. It was nice, but surely not as enticing as Hell. Bill thought for only a brief moment and rendered his decision. "God, I do believe I would prefer to go to Hell."

"As you wish," said God.

Two weeks later, God decided to check up on the late billionaire to see how things were going. He found Bill shackled to a wall, screaming amidst the hot flames in a dark cave. He was being tortured by demons with pitchforks. "How ya doin', Bill?" asked God.

Bill responded with anguish and despair, "This is awful! This is not what I expected at all! What happened to the beach and the beautiful women playing in the water?"

"Oh, that," said God. "That was the screen saver."

Sky Harbour

Sky Harbour continues to develop. I've playing around with it in 3D to try and find a good composition. If you'd like to see other artist's ideas for Sky Harbour, you find them in the ImagineFX competition forum by clicking here.

How to connect with the Life-force

Thought for the week

If we can learn to connect with the Life-force and go with the flow of life, instead of battling against it, we will have a much easier journey through life. Most of us aren’t aware that we can connect with the Life-force or haven't been taught how to do it. There are a few simple techniques we can use to get started.

Some of the techniques have to do with us being aware of how the Holy Spirit or the Life-force is communicating with us. There are many ways it sends us messages such as through our intuition or a series of coincidences. Being creative also brings us closer to that creative energy in the Life-force. We can also use spiritual exercises to help us connect with the Holy Spirit and learn to increase our awareness of its presence in our lives.

Intuition
Being aware of our intuition or the messages we receive intuitively will help us to connect with the Life-force. We have a number of aspects within ourselves which are, emotions, memories, the mind, intuition and Soul. Soul uses intuition to speak to the mind so that it will be aware of something happening in our life. Our Intuition is often refereed to as “the small voice within”. If our mind and its logic is a dominant part of our lives we are going to have hard time hearing the “small voice”. If we are not used to listening to our intuition it can be a very small voice when we do eventually discover it.

This is because a lot of the intuition we receive is not logical. Soul has a higher viewpoint of our lives and can see a lot more than our logical mind. For example, we plan to go meet someone and our intuition gives us the idea of taking a different direction from our usual route. This new route may not seem logical as it may be longer or more awkward to navigate. Soul can see that on the different route we may meet someone who will assist us in some way or there may be a problem in going the usual way. If we take the route suggested by our intuition and we get the opportunity to check out the regular route, we may discover the reason for the suggestion. Doing this a number of times will give us confidence in the messages we receive from the small voice / intuition.

Coincidences
Coincidences are a another way the Holy Spirit communicates with us. If we notice a number of similar things happening by coincidence, it may be the Life-force is trying to tell us something. For example, if someone comes to mind for no reason, then shortly after that someone mentions them in conversation and then you notice their photo or someone who looks like them. Why is Spirit bringing this person to our attention? It may be that we should contact them or we are being prepared to meet them.

Being Creative
Being creative with situations, problems and challenges in our lives is another way of connecting with the Life-force. The Holy Spirit is a creative force. When we get creative with a situation we are plugging into the energy to find a solution to our challenge. This could be as simple as cooking a good meal based on the limited food available to us, or finding new ways to do a task to make it easier or more efficient. While we are in the creative area we are using our imagination. We are searching for ideas and playing with with a little of the Life-force's creative energy to create a solution for some issue in our world.

HU Song
Another technique is to use a sound from the place where Soul is. By singing this sound we begin to open up the connection between our physical world and Soul's world. With regular practice we begin to see things in our life from a higher viewpoint. We see them from a different angle and will often get solutions or new approaches to challenges we face in our daily life. The HU Song is very simple to do. Take ten to twenty minutes to be in a quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Make yourself comfortable, take a few deep breaths and think of something or someone who brings love to your heart. Then on your outgoing breath sing in a drawn out fashion, HUuuu. Pronounced like “hue” as in colour or the name Hugh. As you sing, listen for sounds within yourself and look for lights on your inner screen. Ideas may come to you, so have a pen a paper nearby so you can take notes.

Being of service
Being of service to others and where possible giving a little love is another great way of connecting with the Life-force. When we think about it, this Force is being of service to us constantly. It provides the essential elements of our existence and without any expectation from us. It gives to us in an unconditional way. If we can operate in a similar way we will begin to see how service and unconditional love benefit others but also us too.

For example, if we are tending a garden by watering and feeding the plants, keeping the weeds out and helping them grow, we are being of service to the plants. If we love doing the garden, the plants will be better and brighter for it. We are now using a similar energy or approach to life as the Spirit and we are thereby moving closer to it..

We have a choice
Now we have a choice of techniques to help us connect with the Life-force.
Intuition, being aware of the “small voice within”.
Coincidences, watching for happy accidents which lead us in a particular direction.
Being creative and using our imagination and the Life-force to find solutions
The HU Song which helps move our awareness to where Soul is.
Being of service with love helps others as well as us.

We can use any or all of these to help us increase our awareness. We may be familiar with some of them already but now we can add others to our list.

I hope this has been of some service to you as you explore your connection with the Life-force

*Ed Parkinson

If you need more insights into the Life-force, the Holy Spirit or other spiritual subjects, you'll find it in the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

A view of our Inner Worlds

An exhibition of work by Ed Parkinson
Exhibitions opens next Tuesday, 24th April in the Ranelagh Arts Centre, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland.
The Opening Reception is from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Exploring our Inner Worlds - Artist's Talk
Come along on Saturday 28th April at 2pm, when Ed Parkinson will share his insights about exploring our inner worlds. He will also have a few simple techniques to helps you being exploring your own inner worlds.

Exhibition
The exhibition is open Tuesday 24th to Saturday 28th April from 12pm to 7pm each day.
Call in for the opening reception on Tuesday at 6.30pm or the Artist's Talk on Saturday at 2.00pm or between opening times during the week.