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Start from Where You Are

Mount ShastaOne year ago, we pulled two trucks into Mount Shasta and began unloading. A year later, a lot has changed… all for the better. Sometimes you really do need a change of scenery and location in order to make mindset changes easier and more productive.

Texas was good for us on a number of levels. The schools in Dripping Springs, where we lived, were phenomenally good for our son, Max.

But when we visited Mount Shasta in August of 2009, a few weeks before Mark took his trip to Russia to speak in Moscow and Novosibirsk to over 1,000 people, I had a very strong intuitive hit that Shasta was a place where we could more easily take care of ourselves. Actually, it was less of an intuitive hit and more like a giant sucker punch. Upon our return to Texas, it became like a siren going off inside of me that I couldn’t remain there long term. It took a few even more painful reminders after Mark returned from Russia for us to fully get that we really needed to take care of ourselves… and that we needed to move to a place that was a salve to our souls.

Spirit moved swiftly to open up an incredibly beautiful landing place in a neighborhood full of spiritually aware, heart-centered people… and healing animals. (One day I’ll write about our neighbor’s dog who has an amazing gift of opening heart energy… its really neat to watch and play with that dynamic.)

When we moved in here one year ago, I knew that we’d have about a year in this house. I allowed myself to relax into that knowledge. As time went on, I fell more and more in love with the place, the people, the environment, and the experience. Yet, something within me knew it wasn’t a forever home. I felt anxiety as I fell deeper in love with my life experience here knowing that it would eventually change.

But I was encouraged to open up and enjoy it as if it was going to last forever, even with the temptation to not fully enjoy it because I knew it wasn’t permanent. How do you fall in love with something that you know is temporary? The temptation is to focus more on what might be next rather than fall in love with the experience of the here and now was overpowering.

But there’s something very powerful in that overpowering experience, powerful in knowing that everything that is here in your experience is very temporary. This is true, no matter what your experience… everything is temporary. You might own your home outright, have the perfect career and a big pile of money, but it could all end in an instant and it certainly cannot “go with you” so to speak. This entire experience on earth is very temporary in the grand scheme of things.

To allow yourself to fall in love with that temporary experience is to allow yourself to fall in love with the permanent experience of being in love with life. Resisting loving something because it won’t last forever is resistance of love itself.

In realizing that and loving it with all of my heart anyway, I discovered a power of creative experience that opened me to another awareness and another experience of life that is deeper and more fulfilling than where I was previously.

Life as a Tree
I have done a meditation on my daily walks to my favorite meadow, imagining that I was as grounded and rooted in the earth as the great evergreen trees that surrounded me. I imagined that this was my permanent home, that I would live here for hundreds of years without ever losing my leaves, that great nutrients of life giving abundance were constantly flowing to my roots. I imagined my roots drilling deeper into the earth while I reached higher for the sunlight, swaying gently in the winds that came my way.

This meditation was incredibly powerful in allowing myself to ground into my environment and allowing myself to fall in love with it. I could sense that the beautiful trees that surrounded me had a consciousness of their own, not exactly like my own, but that the energy of growth and being alive is akin to a joy, a dancing, a concerto of experience.

The wind whispering between their branches and leaves was their song and dance, and that there was a playfulness to their existence… a playfulness of awareness that this serious business of being grown up had led me to forget.

Where We Are
Yes, Mount Shasta has been very good to me, very good to us, and 2010 has been a wonderful year of reconnection to Spirit and playfulness that we didn’t feel in Texas.

Of course, you don’t need to move or even visit a different place to get this feeling. You can get it where you are right now, but sometimes an external impetus as reminder works quicker and faster, and sometimes we are so tapped out that we cannot tap back in to feel it. From my own experience, I would highly encourage you to do what you need to do in order to find that reconnection to Spirit within yourself and your environment.

2010 has been a wonderful year of tremendous input into both of our spiritual growth. I can sense that 2011 is going to be a tremendous year of output from that reconnection. The energy that is flowing from us may resonate with your path, too. And there will be plenty of available experiences for you to discover if that is true.

Mark will be speaking at a number of seminars in the next few months, which excites me and inspires me. He’s also promised to start podcasting again and even videocasting, which we’ll launch in the next few weeks.

I myself hope to be writing more in 2011, some of that will end up here, too.

Mark has an amazing voice and presence that I – and many others – find to be incredibly connecting and inspiring. Coupled with his knowledge of all things relating to consciousness and personal development, well, I may be biased, but part of the reason I became interested in him and his work was watching him speak over 4 years ago. I am thrilled that more people will be able to experience what I did then. Mark is a tremendous speaker with much to share… 2011 will be a year of breakthroughs for many.

Here’s a toast to your own personal breakthroughs in 2011 so that you can allow a life experience of pure joy and happiness to expand your experience beyond your wildest dreams.

– Kathy

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3 Comments

  1. Kathy, that post was amazing! Thank you for sharing that. So much of it resonates with me. Can’t wait to hear everything that Mark and you have to share :)You guys are amazing people and I am sure that amazing things are in store for you this year. As always love and blessings.

  2. Kathy,

    Very nice article, I have only been to Mt Shasta once but it was inspiring and did bring me to another level of gratitude & refreshment.

    I had to opportunity to meet and work along side Mark in Dallas last month & it was a joy. His professionalism a kindness is very refreshing. My life will always be enhanced by the few days I spent with Mark as we teamed up to produce amazing content for our client.

    Please tell Mark Thank you, and if there is anything he needs as his career expands this year, do not hesitate to call me. I would be honored to team up on future projects.

    Thank you for your toast & a prosperous 2011 to you and your family up in God’s country.

  3. I truly enjoy your writing. It is very inspirational and as always you inserted some motivating metaphors for my subconscious mind. Thank you Mark. All of me loves you. Namaste

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