While I truly believe that I am unique, I’m not THAT unique to be experiencing life’s lessons all by myself and one of the biggest lessons for me at the moment is on setting boundaries.

Now we have all gone through the boundaries vs limitations arguments many times, and I do believe that while we must work at losing our limitations, we also need to set boundaries. If we lose our boundaries, we eventually lose our integrity. Think about it … even if you drift through life like a jellyfish and always react rather than act, you still have boundaries. Otherwise, why does a jellyfish sting you when you overstep their territory? Or think about dancers, real dancers … they set their dance space, their place in which they work to create a beautiful dance which honours them, their body, their talent, and through that, their Universe.

So, like every one of life’s lessons that I’ve discovered so far, boundaries and limitations are a paradox that we need to personally work through, to maintain our balance, our unique place in our unique Universe.

Good luck with your personal balancing act, and may you discern with compassion.

Bright blessings

Sue Bagust

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Ego

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience,

We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Every couple of years, someone approaches me with a great idea to fix an acknowledged human problem through using Reiki. I think the first big problem was a war; the latest is certainly El Nino. Now I am not saying that Reiki is not able to fix our human problems with El Nino; what I am asking is do we really want to?

Do we really want to "fix" El Nino because it would be a "good" thing to do, or is this just another Ego trip to prove our power over our Earth?

What if El Nino is our Earth’s reaction to our human effort to master our planet? What if El Nino, and earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and giant waves, and even global warming, is simply our living Earth twitching and scratching in an effort to dislodge her problem guests rather like a dog tries to rid itself of fleas?

And if we truly are spiritual beings having a human experience, isn’t it about time that we remembered enough to stop trying to force our hostess into submitting to our desires? We have bulldozed earth and torn up forests and redirected whole river systems to force our hostess to supply our perceived needs and yet she is still gracious enough to share with us the power that is the base for our Reiki.

Isn’t it time that we offered her something back?

Not in a human way, all tied about with strings and conditions and redirecting her desires by trying to stop El Nino, but in a spiritual way, with Reiki energy, unconditionally offered for her use, wherever and however she wants to use it?

Respectfully offered for your consideration

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Evil

The only thing needed for Evil to flourish is for men of good will to do nothing.

Everyone’s foundations have been rocked to our core beliefs by what is happening in our world. We now are faced with daily choices as to why we are here and what sort of life we wish to live.  I think that, in the past, a lot of us in the West ignored these choices – and our kindly Universe allowed us to remain ignorant, if we so wished.

Today, we haven’t the luxury of choosing to remain ignorant. We are being forced into making choices, for good or for evil, and I do believe in that evil is alive in our world and tempting us into being less than we can be. You may have every excuse under the Sun for behaving badly, from a dysfunctional family to money problems to the ubiquitous unhappy childhood, but the truth is that every single action you choose is yours and yours alone.

How can you fight evil? 

I reckon the most user-friendly way is just to choose the opposite to evil and the opposite to evil is to live!

Try it yourself; spell “evil” backward and what do you get? Live! And that means to live fully rather than just existing. Laugh. Love. Dance. Pay compliments. Indulge in random acts of kindness, just because you can. Enjoy every minute of every precious day because when you live your life fully, you counterbalance evil.

And yes, I do realise that our world is facing serious problems. But choosing to be serious, to be unhappy, to be angry, to hurt our fellow humans – how does this solve anything?  Doesn’t it just add to the weight of the world?  I think that choosing to live is choosing to thwart the sad fools who believe that money = power = everything.  Instead, I choose to laugh and to love and by doing so choose to disempower our serious, angry, hurtful fellowman who behave badly, especially our politicians, by laughing at their antics rather than by becoming angry. Anger only fuels evil; laughter encourages life.

I choose to fight evil by living fully in the moment, every moment of every blessed day. I hope that you too, decide to live.

Bright blessings

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Hope

Hope gets me out of bed every morning to face another day.

Hope smiles at strangers, in the hope of finding a new friend.

Hope challenges sporting champions into new arenas.

Hope is the foundation for every business plan, the centre of every negotiation, and the driving force of every charity. Hope is the basis for every human endeavour.

Hope is the mainstay of the gambler. Hope is the opiate offered by churches.

Hope makes the dog associate with humans, in hopes of a pat instead of a kick. Hope brings the alley cat out from the safety of the shadows, hoping for more than the smell of food. Hope keeps the battered wife prisoner, the hope of what could be, what should be, instead of what is.

Hope walked with people into the ghettos and concentration camps and gas chambers.

Hope that we can make a difference is what makes our world livable.

Hope is the forerunner of love.

Hope gets me out of bed every morning to face another day.

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A different perspective on Love

One of the main issues that has risen lately for many of us is how to open our hearts so that we may Love with our whole Being. We are learning how to choose to friendship over business advantage, how to forgive a wrong rather than demanding revenge, how to recognise the temptation to stay only in our thinking persona so we may avoid any hurts that come with opening our hearts. In this wonderful time that we have chosen to live on our Earth, we are all learning how to live from our hearts, rather than operating only from our heads or relying on our hands.

However, one of my pet hates is when I receive an email to send someone Love along with complete instructions on how to invade their energy field without their permission. Now don’t get me wrong: I’m as big a Beatles fan as anyone else as well as a fully paid up member of the All you need is love generation. I also believe wholeheartedly (couldn’t resist that pun!) that I also need to learn how to live from my heart. But I am also philosophically against invading someone else’s territory other than for rescuing children or animals.

The trouble is, when we receive warm-fuzzy-huggy directions to send Love, our emotions are not really involved. It is our ego and our need to do good so that we may feel good that takes over, and we turn off the brain. If we all made an agreement with ourselves to think before an automatic feel-good knee-jerk kicks in, I reckon we’d enjoy a better world. You see, there’s not just the Golden Rule (do unto others….) but also the Platinum Rule (do unto others … in the manner that they prefer)

One way to bring things into perspective is to stop thinking about energy as a non-event. Like Doubting Thomas, some of us just don’t believe energy exists unless we can actually see it. So what does it matter if you send Love, or hate, or a thought package of dog turds ---- If it doesn’t matter, why do it? But if it does matter, then at least give yourself a minute to think about it first.

One of the ways I use to help me decide on actions in the spiritual world is to relate my actions to my mundane world: As above, so below. If I want to send Love in the mundane world, I will offer a kiss, or a hug, or kind words. If you are not present I’ll phone, or send an email, or a Hallmark card ---- and it’s entirely up to you whether you choose to accept the gift and it’s entirely up to you how you respond to my offer of love. For me the biggest part of receiving any gift is the knowing that I am loved and that you care.

What do you think happens in the spiritual world when we sneak in to someone’s energy field with a package of Love? First, how much Love are you going to send? A little? A lot? As much Love as you can package?

And do you know what your recipient will be doing when you sneak up and grab them in the spiritual equivalent of a bear hug? What happens if they are driving a car or operating heavy machinery when you deliver a huge package of Love?

Forget the prescription cough medicines that make you drowsy and inattentive and carry a warning on the packet; how much more distracting and dangerous is suddenly receiving all the Love that you can package, in a world that is starved of love!

Wouldn’t it be smarter to be polite and ask them first if they would like to be loved? It’s just the simple addition of the spiritual equivalent of a knock on the door and a May I come in? before you go charging into someone’s energy field, like you knock and call out before you enter someone else’s home.

It’s a politeness. It’s common sense. And it’s a kind way to choose to live our lives, by respecting the spiritual territory of other living entities.

Submitted for your consideration, with love ---

Sue Bagust
Reprinted with permission by The Deck magazine

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The Paradox of Power

I can’t believe how difficult we make our lives, struggling to wrest what we perceive as power from others, when the answer is as simple as a child’s movie …. take Aladdin as an example. Aladdin wins the girl, the life he wants, the kingdom – at the exact moment when he gives it all up to be himself.

And that is all any of us can ever be, is our own self.

And that is everything we ever need to be, is to be our own self.

And that is the best we can ever offer any other person, is our own self.

When we are truthfully, unconditionally, ethically within our own skin, humble in our own power, we are the most powerful we can ever be.

And that is the paradox of power.

May you always be true to your authentic self, and may you discern with compassion.

Bright blessings

Sue Bagust

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