Love:

Face Forward

Maybe it’s this time of year that brings the ghosts of the past back into present memory.

I found myself thinking of old friends, old relationships, jobs, even past versions of myself.

They would pop into my mind like a cluster of clouds suddenly appearing in a blue sky.

I would linger for a few moments, remembering. This happened several times before the past started looming over me, like a thunderstorm ready to pour out all its gathered water droplets.

I started comparing then and now. This person and that person. Me before and me now.

And just as the vortex of assembled past memories threatened to swallow me whole, I thought “eyes forward, face forward”.

My thoughts would insist, “but what about this? Remember this?”.

An intriguing scene would unfold into my mind, full of emotion and colored with past love and loss.

And I remembered, “eyes forward, face forward.”

‘It’s not real’, I thought.

These people in my mind, the places in my memory. They don’t exist unless called upon.

Even then, they aren’t real. They have no bearing on my Now, my Upcoming.

As appealing or mesmerizing as the memory might be, I realized I could look away. I could look forward.

I could see the transparent nature of the ghosts and phantoms of the past. They develop as quickly as a cloud and can dissipate just as quickly.

Entrance yourself with that of your choosing, not with the scattered bits and bobs of the old.

Here’s to facing forward, facing right here and right now. Ready to greet the new friends, lovers, and fun makers that are yet to develop.

<3,

Heba

I took the plunge and got myself a tiny space of my own to create and discover. I needed a few items of furniture to put in there, and I found two perfect chairs and a small bookshelf at a local shop.

These pieces wouldn’t fit in my car, so I figured maybe I could rent a truck to move my things over. Maybe I could ask someone I know for help moving them.

But things kept falling through, even the website for the rental truck wouldn’t load or kept crashing.

I had 3 days to move the items and I was on the last day, two hours before closing time.

I decided to go back to the store and see about somehow stuffing these things into my car or asking the store if they could give me more time.

Somehow, there were no parking spots in the entire lot! And even the pickup lane had a line of cars waiting to idle.

I made loops and loops around the lot, eventually starting to laugh at my situation. Other cars would cut me off or randomly stop in front of me to unload people or things.

The universe didn’t seem to care that the store was closing or that I’d run out of options.

The delay started to seem purposeful, so I said, “Ok, what do you want me to see?”

I circled one more time, and was stopped right beside a truck with a trailer. I’d noticed it before as I circled. It was cuter than any truck and trailer I’d seen before. It was very small and had a net covering the trailer to hold the cargo.

In front of me, someone was having trouble maneuvering their van, they were endlessly moving forward and backwards in the same spot.

Before I knew what I was doing, I put my car in park and ran out to the two guys with the little truck and trailer. I said hello and asked if they would ever consider doing a small haul for a fee.

The owner of the truck said he never had before, but he thinks it would be ok. He asked what I was moving and I said, “Just 2 chairs and a mini bookshelf!”

They said that was ok and miraculously, a loading space opened up for them to pull into. I ran back to my car to park it and another miracle, someone pulled out of a spot right out front!

They were friendly and kind, coming inside with me to find my items. As we were waiting, I asked if the owner of the truck had venmo or paypal. He said, “Don’t worry about it! We’re all neighbors.”

I was shocked.

I insited several times to give him something, and he would laugh and refuse. They carried my things out and loaded them on the trailer.

The brother of the owner said, “It might rain, we don’t have a tarp.”

I replied, “God’s gotten us this far, I think it’ll be okay!”

They followed behind me, and we drove the whole way (almost half an hour) over the bumpiest roads. We arrived and unloaded my 2 chairs and 1 mini bookshelf.

I tried again to repay their kindness, they again laughed and said it was no problem. They waved goodbye and headed off.

I couldn’t believe what had just happened. It had been so easy, so effortless when I stopped overthinking and stressing. The help was right in front of me.

I had other pieces to move, and each one came with its own unique, creative solution that I’d never considered.

As often as I can remember, I say a prayer for those two brothers. I ask for blessings to rain upon them and good fortune to follow wherever they stand.

Sometimes I think the most powerful force in the world is Kindness. I see how it changes people, I see how it changes me.

I lived for a while without it, and the world felt strange and scary.

I’m thankful that I told myself then, “It still exists Heba. There is kindness. There are wonderful people. One day you’ll be wonderful again, too.”

And it was true.

Praising the Bagels

I recently found BK Shivani and I’ve listened to a couple of her videos on YouTube.

In one video, she outlines helpful affirmations to recite in the morning, before bed, and if possible before eating or drinking water.

She goes on to talk more about all the different vibrations and energy our water and food pass through before they reach us. Speaking the affirmations onto your water and food before consuming it elevates your vibration and blesses the food and water.

I wrote the affirmations she suggested onto index cards so I can go through them easily in the morning.

Just to practice, I decided to drink some water before bed.

Flashcards in hand, I whispered into my water glass all of these beautiful words.

Of course, it made me smile and laugh, speaking sweet nothings into my water.

I decided to affirm the water as well, I told it how beautiful and worthy it was. How it’s powerful and loved. This made me laugh and also got me thinking…

What if I talked to all my food and water like that? Not out loud, but silently as I took each bite or sip. Could I find sweet affirmations for the food I was eating?

For the silliness of it, and for the love too. Wouldn’t it be nice to praise the flour and the salt in my bagel. To wish blessings on the workers that milled the grains and extracted the salt.

Could I find beauty in a bagel? And could I speak that beauty into my bagel, bite by bite?

I love the idea. And I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow so I can praise everything I eat and drink.

Tomorrow, I intend to fall in love with every drop of water and every morsel of food. I’m excited for the busy day ahead.

<3,

Heba

The Rising of Self

Years ago, I became sober of all of life’s distractions and attempted to be in the present moment. I realized how much I had tried not to be in the present moment.

I especially found this to be true at work. I would come in preparing to escape presence; I looked for jobs that would be best for non-presence.

(Of course, I wasn’t consciously aware that I was doing this.)

There was an anger and a rebellion inside me in relation to presence.

–

The last few days, I’ve been bringing awareness to my thoughts when they feel particularly wild. I wrote on an index card with Sharpie: “Let go of the narrative.”

This morning, I looked at the index card while I got ready for the day. I took a breath and tried to sit in the present moment. It was perfect, free of monsters and villains. Just me, in a moment, applying lip gloss.

I felt anger and resistance well up inside me, a seeming voice that yelled, “Run!”

I brought awareness to this voice, to this feeling of needing to flee.

And I realized, in the past, my peaceful moments of presence had been interrupted so regularly. They’d been crashed into with bowling balls of another’s wrath or pain.

Perhaps in those moments of presence we find Ourselves. We find peace and revitalization. Moments of rest and recalibration.

The interruption of them causes disturbance to our innate sense of rebalancing towards well-being. Perhaps it causes disturbance in the development of Self – feeling comfortable in our internal seat of self.

And when the interruptions cease, we’re left with our reactive memory of them. Our response that springs up to protect our sacred self and sacred peace.

The self and the peace never left, never moved. They were always there. And our response was not to protect our “outer” self, but the most sacred inner self.

Knowing that one day, we would be able to come home again. Home to that inside peace that knows us so well. It knows all of our names and all of our hearts.

–

I spoke to this part of me that wanted to run, to protect the beautiful womb of peace within me.

It said, “How can you be sure it’s safe? What if it happens again? Perhaps we should be on guard. Perhaps we need to be somewhere safer. Perhaps we need to build a fortress. Don’t be quiet, don’t be peaceful. I don’t want the interruption to happen. I don’t want you to be scared. I don’t want you to be hurt.”

I couldn’t guarantee that something wouldn’t interrupt a peaceful moment. How could I? We live in a wild world of aliveness.

I prayed, “How do I live in the peace of the present moment and in the variability and wildness of life’s happenings?”

I suspect that I know the answer, and it currently lies beneath the language of words.

The answer is in the question itself. It’s awareness and consciousness coming forward to shine light on this very question. It’s replacing the scary “what if” with “I am.”

Life has no guarantees, it only demands presence. Fear can’t live in the same space as Presence. That’s why it tries to “kick it out”.

When these kinds of questions come up, it means you are already in the process of coming home. You are ready to rise (a continual rising) to reclaim yourself and your peace.

Your being is saying, “I’m ready.” And it’s a process. Every moment of tension is a moment to raise your consciousness, to bring your awareness forward and shine your light.

Have compassion for the younger You that was wise enough to know, “One day I’ll be ready. I’ll have scrapes and scars, but on the inside, I’ll be whole and well. And I’ll remember that those scars are not who I am, but what I had to do. I’ll remember how well I protected my Sacred self and I’ll give myself to myself once more. I’ll say, I’m here. And I’m ready.”

Have faith in the You that you are now. You are strong enough to rise to the occasion.

<3,

Heba

The Gift of Projection

Om Namah.

Om-ah.

Home-ah.

Home.

The present moment sounds like a return to peace. A long exhale in a cloud of hurried breaths.

I lived for a while in a modern-day cave, turning inward and finding my truth.

I saw clearly that the only thing we really have is the present moment. The right now. This, right here. *inhale*

*exhale*

All the plans and stories and aspirations are projections, movie reels that we play out on the projector of our mind.

These thoughts made me feel real. I was a real person with a past, with goals and dreams for the future. I had a mental image of what I look like, what I wanted to look like, who I was in the world.

And in the slurry of projections, the truth had become lost.

I was at the mercy of images, ideas, plans, and memories. Beholden to my perception of how others see me, what I was supposed to be doing or saying or being.

The Devil card in the Tarot represents the physical world. The world of illusions. Not just that, but an over-fixation on that world so that the truth behind the illusion becomes temporarily lost.

We become enslaved to fear, to conditioning, we lose sight of the truth inside and start to desperately seek it somewhere “out there”.

To live as a sage, a master, a mistress of the Origin Breath, is to live without planning. To wash away the previous moment and think nothing of the upcoming moment.

In absolute faith that all will come, and all will fall away.

Tending to needs as they arise, planning nothing. Not concocting anything for the future, but noticing when thoughts arise of what’s to come.

It was a relief for some time, to live as Nothing. The breath before my existence was given a name. Before people around me assigned me characteristics. I was alive, in sync with the nature around me, in sync with my body’s needs.

I had no aspirations, no desire to obtain money or status or success. As time wore on, I started wanting to Have Things again. I wanted to look a certain way, to wear certain clothes. I felt called to talk to certain people, to create things with my hands. And then I wanted other people to see those things.

The most holy path is to live like a sage, but we are not only holy. We are also gifted desire, projection, relationship with our world, contemplation, preference.

These attributes lay atop our undefined self like a blanket lays over a bed.

We are the present moment and the projection.

I am, I sit. Noticing how there is nothing but This.

And from this Nothing, I can conjure thought. I can collect those thoughts into a projection.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to go on a walk today?” And the mind automatically begins to visualize taking a walk. You see yourself there, having a walk. Or you feel the desire and intention and satisfaction of that walk.

Projection is a choice, it’s a gift.

When you lose sight of that choice, when your projection begins to overwhelm your sense of autonomy, it’s time to step back.

Step back into breath, step back into that Nothing space. So that when you emerge again, you remember.

The next time you are imagining, a joyful imagination or otherwise…remember that you are choosing this movie. Whatever is playing in your mind is a choice.

If you feel like it is not a choice, Pause. Breathe. Find the empty spaces between sound. Take a cold shower. Walk in nature. You are not your thoughts, you are the choice maker behind the thoughts.

Shift your perspective so that projection is fun again. It is a choice and a gift.

See your goals and aspirations as a gift, because they are. We have the ability to project through time and space and see ourselves anywhere, doing anything!

We can choose to see ourselves joyful and satisfied or angry and punishing. All in the deafening quiet of our own mind.

Which movies do you play for yourself in your mind? Do you set your scenes in a drama or in a comedy? Are you in love, or are you in vengeance?

<3,

Heba