In the fall of 1972 as I began my sophomore year in college, my sister joined me as a freshman, sharing an apartment near campus along with 4 other friends. Janice & I had grown up very close, being only one year apart in age. We were so excited to be together again at school, though we were far from our home in Tennessee. Mother told me later that Daddy cried all the way across that 2000-mile drive home, feeling the loss of leaving his two little girls so far away from him. Read the rest of this entry »

As I was kayaking across Lake Tahoe’s northern shores last week, mesmerized by the intense cobalt blue waters so clear you can see all the way to the bottom—I had an epiphany. I was not entirely happy, and I knew why: I was holding onto a lot of other people’s stuff, and it was sucking the life out of me! As I glided along across the miles of glassy water towards a gorgeous rocky point, I noticed some extra pounds of heaviness—added weight in my heart that did not fit my style in that moment. I knew I had to let go of something in order to return to my own peaceful center, Read the rest of this entry »

I woke up before dawn this morning feeling very out of alignment with spirit. I said some forgivings, hoping to release some unwanted energy, and asked for help in prayer. But still needing more, I hopped up, threw on some clothes and shoes, and went for a walk in the cool early morning stillness. With my first few steps, I thought that walking around my palm-tree-lined suburban neighborhood did not seem like the spiritual retreat I would have chosen. When I consider re-creating my alignment with spirit, I usually think of being on top of a mountain, by a stream, or in a sacred spot in the forest. But surprisingly today, in just about ten minutes of moving my body while listening to the chirping birds and simply breathing the fresh air, I began to awaken spiritual life in me again. Read the rest of this entry »

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In the summer of 1999, I spent a week in the heart of the Grand Canyon in a lush and rare shangri-la called Havasupai. People go there to enjoy the magnificent turquoise spring waters that flow through the red rock valley, creating breathtaking waterfalls, pools, and eventually meshing with the Colorado River. People also gather there to meditate and to seek spiritual experiences.

With a group of single adults, most of whom I did not previously know, I shared a private campsite, catered meals, and guided walks by a native shaman. Each one of us had our own ways of spending time with the elements and with the spirit there, on the many different levels that each would choose. While most of the others used what I call ‘plant medicines’ to travel into psychic visions meant to enlighten and heal them, I went alone into spirit through the exquisite creations of nature found only in such a place. I found my answers to life’s questions through spiritual highs as I connected with the precious spring waters and sheltering rocks and trees, magical dragonflies, sounds of stillness, grand and hallowed earth formations, whispering angels, and God. I needed no additional assistance to take me to my euphoria, as this is the dimension where I had already spent much of my life.

Shifting into spiritual communion is to return to the most natural state of truthful living—connecting soul to soul—my soul to the soul of all light and love and truth—my spirit to the wholeness of spirit, the source of truth that created it all in the first place. For me, to be alone in nature is to find my happiest connection to a celebration of all that feels like home.

As I observe life from my own peaceful garden, I notice that this is perhaps what people are seeking when they make some very destructive choices, when they seek a high from illusions that can never bring such peace. These impostors do create a shift in energy, and take one to another dimension, but it is only a disappointing lie in the end. I speak of such choices as over-eating, illicit sexual activities, illegal drug use, a need for an energetic shift through caffeine and alcohol, and destructive personal empowerment through the voices of angry music. I see people observing life through others, spending their free time on a couch watching TV or the computer screen, vicariously living through others experiences without a clue for how to get in touch with their own. People who make these choices seem desperate to feel anything, and grab whatever is available with little effort to seek for the real truths that lie just a little deeper than the obvious.

What people seek in life is to feel better, to feel alive, to feel the truth about themselves, the world, and to enjoy a feeling of belonging in it. How they get there is entirely up to them, as they explore the plate the world dishes up to them, and make choices accordingly. And when that doesn’t work to make them feel the connection to peace they are craving, eventually they find the need to take the leap of faith to explore the world of spirit.

You may not consider yourself one of those who subscribe to self-destructive addictions, but ask yourself these questions:

In what way am I choosing to deny the abundance of light and truth that would allow me to live in greater joyful contentment, now?

And what am I waiting for to begin living from the space of spirit now?

What do I want/have/need to do that I can’t figure out how to do?

Whatever is on your mind and heart, whatever is in front of your face, right now, is the next step on your path. It is here to teach you lessons, to bring you experiences, to enlighten you, and eventually, to guide you home. Just notice it, and start there. This is where guidance waits to lead you to truth, which is the door to those spiritual highs we all must have.

Begin by asking about it. Pray to God, or just start talking to the air if you don’t already know how to communicate with God, but still you can practice exercising a little faith that someone is listening. Your answers are already within you now, and can be accessed as your spirit is connected to the whole vast world of spirit/God—where all truth and knowing has all the answers. Your assignment is to awaken spirit within yourself, and your teacher is whatever is coming up for you right now.

People always ask me how I get to the spirit, and why it seems so simple to me to live in spirit. Since this has been a lifelong pursuit for me, I seem to be able to go there almost instantaneously, and perhaps live there more than I should. I do not want to underestimate the effort required initially, even though I believe the way to spirit does not take much effort. Rather, it is more about stopping the effort, and just noticing the spirit that is already with you. The process is more about stripping away what is not spirit, to allow the lovely energy of spirit that is real and present to be recognized, remembered, and allowed to share its glory with you! This process is the major gift of the atonement, which I share in detail in my book, Trusting Spirit Now, and which is the culminating experience with spirit that we each can and must know for ourselves.

To begin exercising your spiritual awareness muscles, I will refer you to simple processes that will awaken your remembrance of such. To get to spirit, ask yourself what kinds of things take you to the higher levels of peaceful, joyful living. What do you do or where do you go that creates the shift in a positive, blessed way in you?

This energy-raising experience can be found with earthly elements such as flowers and trees, animals (including pets), water, rocks, sky, fresh air, sunshine (I believe spirit is what sunbathers are really seeking), fragrances (including essential oils)—anything of God’s abundance that delights your awareness. God gave us the earth to bless us. I feel spirit in all of these, and especially when I have my gardening hands right in the dirt with its produce.

You can raise your vibrations with experiences of the body, such as exercise or fasting or choosing to eat only high-frequency foods, all of which push your body beyond its apparent limits by exercising your spiritual will—mind over matter, allowing your own spirit to be in charge, which in effect causes it to be ‘supercharged’. Such discipline comes from your spiritual self, so any use of it allows your connection to spirit to be increased.

You can feel spirit with connections to the arts, such as poetry, movies that uplift the soul, by celebrating the beauty of visual arts, and especially by participating in artistic creations of your own. Music has immediate power to connect one to spirit, with its combinations of sound vibrations that resonate with the deep truths of the soul, added to lyrics that share messages from the heart. Keep some organized files of music that you know you can depend on to raise your vibrations when you are suffering from a loss of spirit. Whenever I play the piano, sing, paint pictures, or cook with natural ingredients and joyful creative energy, I find spirit.

Reading words of truth or observing creations from truth, praising beauty (God) in any form, we can connect to spirit, which will always bring the blessed comforts we cannot afford to live without.

One of my spiritual mentors had a favorite question he would ask when I began sharing my tales of suffering: How much time have you spent with the Lord today? Even though I always knew that was what he was going to say, I still felt the need to pour out my woeful story to him first. It took me months of this routine before I realized, why don’t I just take my load to the Lord in the first place?

Spending time with the Lord is glorifying to my soul. It feeds me on a level that raises my spirit to His. If I am out of practice, this may take a while, even a few hours of staying with the gifts of God’s spirit in nature or scripture or prayer or anything that connects me. Later on, it may only take a verse and a breath to bring me immediately home to him. But once connected to this majesty, I can go through my day and handle anything, with joy, with peace, with satisfaction that life is indeed very good.

Finding spirit is the act of remembering. Remembering God. Remembering that I am a part of God. Remembering that I am very unique in purpose and love and a part of royalty. Just remembering this, I act like the princess I am, and do not make destructive choices. I make choices that increase my aura of love, for myself, and all of those whom I serve. Maybe when that craving for chocolate hits, I could take a moment to go deeper, and know that what I really want is a ‘spirit fix.’ A moment of meditation with a sunset might serve me better. Whenever I think my body needs some attention, I ask what my spirit needs and feed it first.

Using some of the tools listed above, with daily use, just a few minutes of spiritual connection to God’s grace can lift your soul to heaven, and keep you there while your body does its thing in the earth sphere. This is bringing heaven to earth. This is living in the world, but not of the world.

Once with spirit, you will feel guidance, promptings, nudges to act or speak in certain specific ways and places. Follow these hunches immediately, and soon you will be speaking with God and his angels on a regular basis. Don’t worry that you might be crazy. To find your heart (spirit) space, you do have to lose your mind (stop thinking from your history.) Spirit is the place of miracles–pure godly creation, not the same old, same old ways of the brain.

Serving as God directs is being one with him. As you find spiritual connection with God, and as you listen for that communication and guidance, and as you act on what you hear, feel, see, or know, oneness with spirit will be your greatest joy, making life all that you ever wanted it to be.

That is the beauty and gift of trusting spirit now. With my love, Judy