"God, Goddess, Divine Spirit of all there is, we thank you for
this opportunity to gather together in one another's
company. We thank you for the light you bring to this family
gathering.

Please grant us the vision to see the highest in one another,
and grant us the opportunity to continue to be there for each
other in good times, as well as not-so-great-times.

Give us strength and fortitude to ride the tides of change, and
empower us always to be nurturing and loving with one
another. Open our spiritual eyes that we may see one
another for who we truly are... and love one other in the
same spirit.

May sadness, disappointment and anger be minimal; may
happiness, positive thoughts and good experiences together
be bountiful. May we always cope, and hope, with each other...
with Grace."

~ Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway

Now is the Time!

I have been reading some powerful information on goal setting and how it relates to happiness. Goal setting is an actionable way to manifest both tangible and larger than life goals. Setting goals that may now seem unrealistic can be broken down into smaller goals. As these smaller yet essential tasks and endeavors are accomplished a sense of power is awakened.

Goals are intentions. Be specific about the goal, and create measurable outcomes along the way. As these smaller, yet essential tasks and endeavors are accomplished a sense of power is awakened. The connection with the Universe becomes apparent as opportunities relating to your goals/intentions make themselves available. By merely having a focus point, things line up for you to experience a journey that was created especially for you, by you.

Measurable indicators are imperative, they are the markers that remind us to celebrate ourselves, they remind us to feel the grace of gratitude. This is the real jewel of the goal/ intention setting process. We have all hear the saying" Its not the goal it's the journey." By setting goals and intentions and pausing to celebrate the baby steps, we awaken a more constant state of consciousness.

Include life lists, writing exercises you contribute to on a regular basis. Things like a list of accomplishments today and before. Something as simple as shopping for groceries can feel like an accomplishment after a long day of housework, or a hectic at the office. Look at your big and small accomplishments and celebrate with a smile or lingering sense of joy or appreciation, and you may also notice many of these things are directly related to you goals intentions.

The following is a goal worksheet (paraphrased) from the book "Creating Your Best Life."


What is your goal?

Is the goal:
specific? measurable? challenging? approachable?

What are the steps, or smaller goals that are neede to accomplish the goal?

How can I celebrate/ acknowledge small and large successes.

Take a moment to really identify the things that are important to you, what is it that you really want to do with your life?

Blessings on your inner journey... ~ Lalania

Book Signing Reading!

Urban Soul Warrior signing & reading in Denver!

7 pm on August 19th @
The Bookery Nook
4280 Tennyson Street
Denver CO 80212
(303) 433-3439

hiatus-ness

Lately I have been getting on my own nerves. There was a dis-connect that I could not put my finger on. I was filling all my time with reading. I read some real wonderful books, some about fairies, others about magic and wizards, a couple about sexy vampires. I watched a lot of movies too, or watched a show or two on the TV. I couldn't figure out what the problem was, why I was so busy filling myself with other peoples words and images.

Now don't get me wrong, there ain't nothin' wrong with the above forms of entertainment. But I realized I was doing it much more than usual. I have avoided my computer like the plague, hadn't twittered for weeks, no new blog posts. And I didn't feel like meditating.

Meditation has been a major part of my life for many, many years. So to not feel like meditating was strange. And then I realized what the issue was. Meditating, or rather, not meditating, had taken me away from myself. I was filling myself with the words, voices and images of others, so that I could continue to ignore the inner part of me that was calling for attention.

It is all in order, of course, it is a re-calibration of sorts. The energies here on earth and in the universe are changing, and evolving. So, doing things the way I did before was no longer resonating with me. I needed the time that was devoted to entertaining my mind to inspire me creatively. The images from movies and magazines have sparked a new medium for me, and I am making cool new art again. The reading has givin' me new direction for my next book.

And my daily, morning, meditations have refreshed my life throughout. Though sometimes I can only get a few minutes in, the power of meditation if profound.

New Book Tour Dates

Lalania Simone will be in San Francisco in April!

Reading and Signing- Friday, April 25th @ Redhill Bookstore, 401 Cortland Ave., 7 pm.

Signing- Saturday, April 26th @ Marcus Books, 1712 Fillmore St., 4-5pm

Reading and Signing April 26th @ Open Secret Bookstore 923 C. St. San Rafael, 7 pm

NOW damn it!

The eternal now.
It is amazing how we are always in it, yet don't ever seem to notice it.
The perfection of the moment is something we are in complete denial of, something we are oblivious too.
Because if the moment is perfect, then that must mean that I am too, hmmm.
Then all this worrying, and, hurrying, and dieting, and chasing, and complaining, and fixing, etc...would seem pointless.
Perfectly pointless enough to bring you right here, right now, to this present moment.

Elevate Your Mental

-excerpt from the book "Urban Soul Warrior"

Your experience is unique to you. Your understanding and the way you perceive things, no matter what they are, will be different from everyone else’s, simply because of your unique, individual experience. The thoughts that come to your mind first move through the tons of information that you’ve gathered as you’ve lived your life.Your DNA is encoded with genetic information and, some say, memories of past lives. Everything that you have experienced is filed away somewhere in the subconscious mind, whether you remember it or not.

When you have a thought or experience, your mind references it against your past thoughts and experiences. This produces an automatic response system from which life is created on autopilot; everything is based on past occurrences, shaping your present moment from your personal history. This is why many people feel stuck; stuck (did I say stuck) in their job, relationship, or attitude. This automatic response system can work in your favor when your thought process is referencing loving and empowering thoughts and memories. Later chapters feature exercises to retrain your thinking patterns.

Who and where you are right now in this exact moment is a product of your past thoughts, feelings, and actions. What you experience in the next moment, tomorrow, and next year, will be a product of how you are feeling, what you are thinking, and what action you are taking right now. Being aware means being conscious of your present moment, realizing that right now you are creating your current reality, and that of the next moment.

The lives we are living are reflections of whatever we think about most, as well as our deeply held beliefs. The majority of people are unconscious about this connection between our thoughts and our realities. When we are unconscious of our thought processes and belief systems we oftencreate unhappy scenarios or lives. It is important to really understand that like it or not, you are responsible for your life. This one point is the hardest for many of us to
accept. Our society promotes victim consciousness (this is why lawyers get paid so much), which creates an environment of blame where no one is responsible for his or her own life or conditions.
Crazy and sometimes terrible things happen that we cannot control, but you have a choice about how you will react to them, and how you will let them affect you. Mourn the things that must be
mourned, and then release. Take a moment right now to gauge your feelings and reaction to what you just read. Notice if you are feeling resistance or anger to the idea that we are responsible for our situations. If so, this is your ego talking. If you choose to take responsibility
for your life your ego will no longer be able to identify itself as a victim. The ego loves being a victim because it gets so much attention from others, which feeds it. People who believe themselves to be victims also complain a lot. Complaining usually makes one person or group the bad guy, and the complainer the victim. This attitude makes it hard to break through mental boundaries that keep you in stuck mode. Blaming others or society for the way your life is creates mental chaos. If there is chaos in the mind, there is likely to be chaos of some form in your life. This is a disempowering way to live. And as long as a person chooses to see themself as a victim of their experience or environment, they will likely be unable to consciously create
their reality. This is not to say that you need to blame yourself for the unhappy things that have happened to you; this is not about who is to blame for what has happened in the past. Blame creates guilt, which is a very heavy and often unhealthy emotion. The past is gone, let it lie. Decide, here and now, to take responsibility for your life.

It’s time to consciously take on the proper thought patterns to balance our lives. We all deserve to live, love, and flourish. We can become no better than the thoughts we have, and the actions we take. Allow yourselves to have divine, compassionate, and abundant thoughts. These powerful thought vibrations couldn’t help but manifest blessed states of being into your/our waking reality. Learning to shift your awareness to accepting that you are the creator of your life is the first step to understanding and using your great power. Soul Warriors accept, embrace, and live from the perspective that they are responsible for and have the power to create their reality. Rather than seeing this as a depressing or limiting idea, you can use it to discover a deep power and freedom within.

http://www.urbansoulwarrior.com/

Available in bookstores everywhere!

Available on Amazon.com, Tower.com, Borders.com & wherever books are sold.

Xaxa Whispers...

So light on her feet. When she skipped through the forest, she barely seemed to touch the ground. It was rumored, even amongst her people, that she was descended from pixies. She was small, smaller than most in her tribe. Her eyes turned slightly up in the corners, and were light brown, with tiny flecks of jade green. The members of her tribe had never before seen eyes this color, and it just added to her mystery. She had jet black hair that fell in loose ringlets down the middle of her back, which today, she skillfully swept out of her face with opalescent feathers of blue and green. Her people called her Xaxa, (pronounced Sha-sha), because she was free and fierce like the wind. The wind went everywhere, and talked to everything, it knew all of natures secrets. So did Xaxa.

Her people had been moving south along the coast for six moons. They would find an uninhabited patch of land, and stay for many days. Inevitably, after they had begun to get accustomed to the area, Xaxa would come flitting out of the forest with the news, it was time again to travel.

Although Xaxa was very young, the Elders of the clan trusted her completely. She had always had a magic about her. Her mother had become worried when, days after her birth, she still hadn't uttered a sound. Then one morning, as the sun began to glitter on the horizon, she began imitating the twittering of a bird that was sitting on the branch that extended over her head.
The Elders took notice, and immediately began including her in the daily rituals to honor the Sun, the Moon and the Earth Mother. Although she was just a baby, she always fell quiet when these rituals began, as if she understood a need for reverence.

dissovling the i

Realizing now, with a palatable presence in my own me, that the other feeling-ness is the release. I get cranky when I feel out of connection with my I, mad that I am not more conscious, not more aware, that I still feel heavy and disconnected, and shouldn't I, by now, be thru this part? Shouldn't I be more mindful and peaceful and productive, more abundant? Less heavy with both mentation and physical weight?

But it is this that is the release. It is this grumpy, saltyness at myself, my experience, that I am to be grateful for, it is this process of feeling the funk that allows for the release of the junk in the trunk.

I can chose to be irritated or instead be gentle with my I, nurturing instead of silently judging my barely perceptible progress. Drop my consciousness into my heart, and let go of what I am so sure that I know.

God who??

I grew up Catholic, it was the only religion that I knew even existed for a long time. See, I went to Catholic school for most of elementary, middle school and two years of high school. I also grew up in the eighties in Denver. Not much to say for diversity, we had (in order of majority) Whites, Latinos, and Blacks. Things are a lot different here now, different all over the U.S., I am sure.

I was the kid that all the teachers loved, except in religion class. I always seemed to ask the questions that irked and unnerved the nuns and teachers. There were things that just didn't make sense to me, and I wanted an explanation. Why weren't there any female priests? What happened to people who never heard of Jesus, and therefore couldn't accept him as their Lord and Savior? Were they all going to hell for their ignorance? How do we really know Mary was a virgin? Maybe she just didn't want to tell the truth cuz she knew they would stone her. Did God really make the whole world in seven days?

The questions went on and on.

I received feeble answers that did nothing to satisfy my need for understanding. Blind faith eluded me. I continued to make an effort to follow the commandments, went to church, and prayed to the loving, yet fearful God who lived somewhere out there.

Imagine my shock, at the tender age of 19, when I discovered the Goddess."The WHAT??" I asked myself, as I pulled the heavy volume from the shelf at the library. I had just moved to San Diego with a couple of girlfriends a few weeks prior, freshly out from under the thumb of my religious community in Denver. It was a day I will never forget, etched clearly in my mind. I found myself meandering among the isles, looking for feminine images for some drawings I was working on, and there she was, a female God who predated my God.

I hurriedly gathered as many books on the subject that I could carry. Over the next few weeks I poured through them, absorbing ancient lore about this Goddess. The Earth Goddess.
I learned that the pagans, that are looked upon so poorly by Catholics, were the followers of the Goddess, and that the word witch meant wise woman. So much.

I then began reading books about other religions, there were so many belief systems out there. Ancient belief systems, and I knew in my heart that a loving God wouldn't condemn someone for their beliefs.

I was mad at the Catholic God, and Jesus too, for awhile. I felt like I had been tricked.

Then sometinhg real beautiful happened, I started to realize that God was in me, not out there.
That everything was God, and that the word God didn't even cover it. Life, all life animate/inanimate, seen/unseen, was divine.

Delicious

In everything??

"Is God a boy?" my 4 year old daughter asked me?

Darn that day-care center, I thought. Though, I really did love the center, and the woman who took care of mine and many other children. My daughter stopped going there over 2 years ago, when she entered school. But her mind was fertile soil for the religious seeds that were seemingly planted there.
I know it's my fault too, I can't seem to deny her the "Veggie Tales" videos that she picks out when we go to the library.

"Not really, God isn't just a boy. God is really everything. All things have God in them." I respond.

"Uh-uh" she says, "God is a boy, a baby, named Jesus"

"That is just one story of God. God is everywhere, in all things, all the time."

"So, is God my bed?"

"Yes, your bed, your food, your friends and family, everything!" I say, hoping I am getting thru to her.

" Everything? Even poop?"

Aw, man...leave it to a child.

...shadows on the inside

Someone very dear to me just told me about the disturbing dreams she had been having over the past few nights. She remembers feeling tremendous shame in one, and being afraid of evil in another.

" This is wonderful!" I told her. I know it sounds crazy, but its true.

When we feel sad, or are having scary, fearful, thoughts, or dreams, or if we are feeling depressed or deeply frustrated, guilty or ashamed, we are being given a wonderful opportunity to integrate. The disturbing dreams are the shadows revealing themselves, so that they may be attended to, acknowledged, and ultimately loved. These darker emotions only become toxic when they become imprisoned in our bodies and psyches. They don't want to be stuck in us anymore than we want them to be stuck in us. But ignoring them doesn't make them go away. Ignoring the shadows actually makes them grow, they will do what they can to get our attention, which can often lead to an explosion, nervous breakdown, or other uncontrollable emotional blowout.

When we notice an uncomfortable emotion, feeling, thought or dream making itself known, we have a chance to become aware of ourself as a whole being. Allow yourself to feel the shame, or guilt. Say I love you, to the part of yourself that feels this way. It is a part of yourself that doesn't believe its worthy of love.

These feelings are coming up more and more as we move through this spiritual evolution that we have all come here to witness. Yes, allow them. When you look at these feelings as an opportunity to understand wholeness, they will have, less if any power over you. They will become your tool, your mirror to meet your divine and infinite self.

Crazy Times Ya'll...

Riots in Oakland!!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/08/BART.shooting/

bucks, loot, dinero, chips...

Lately, I have had a hard time falling asleep. Got alot on my mind, mad busy lately.

So check it, instead of counting the proverbial sheep to fall asleep, count money. For real! It is a great way to create abundance consciousness.

Whatever we are thinking about at the juicy moment right before we fall asleep, has extra access to the sub-conscious. This is a perfect chance to place a suggestion of money and prosperity into the sub-conscious mind. The sub-conscious is the part of the mind that does the work of creating the circumstances we experience in the material world. ( for more on this subject, check the book Urban Soul Warrior)

I count money in hundreds, I say it clearly in my mind, or whisper it. "one hundred dollars, two hudred dollars, three hundred dollars..." It is very important to say or think the word 'dollars'.
The last number I can remember counting too last night was somewhere aroung twenty-thousand dollars. Use any denomination you like...

Urban Soul Warrior

Come kick it with me...Events:

Book Reading and Signings-

January 23rd 7:00 PM @ Bizarre Bazaar 4986 Lowell Blvd, Denver, http://www.bizarreboutique.net/

January 24th 11:00 AM American Library Association, @ Colorado Convention Center,
14th & Stout, Denver

January 27th 7:30 PM Boulder Bookstore 107 Pearl St., Boulder CO

January 30th 9:00 PM @ Cafe Nuba, Cross Roads Theater in Five Points, Denver CO

i be...

i be...
coffee drinkin',
keyboard clickin',
tofu smokin,
tree huggin'
reggae playin',
veggie eatin',
baby lovin'
hat makin'
thought thinkin'
...rest needin'.