We embark on the third day of a 40 Day Practice, based on the energy of the Labyrinth (releasing – contemplation – receiving). If you have a local labyrinth, I invite you to walk the labyrinth with today’s theme as your focus. If you don’t have a local labyrinth, you can create your own, take a walk somewhere peaceful, or even sit in contemplation in your own home. I will be scheduling various public labyrinth appearances, and you are welcome to join me when and where you can, if you feel moved to do so.
Today’s theme is Volunteering. What does volunteering mean to you? What are all the forms of volunteering? Does volunteering have to be organized? Where do you volunteer your efforts? What does that bring into your life? What does it bring into the world? How important is volunteering to you? Have you ever been a recipient of volunteering?
Questions that might help you see what you can release: How do you feel about volunteering? What are your fears about volunteering? What does the idea of volunteering bring up for you? Are there any ideas you have about volunteering you might need or want to get rid of? What gets in your way of volunteering?
Suggestions for Contemplation: Is there a long form or large scale sort of volunteering? What might the roots of volunteering be? What might the goal(s) be? Do you associate animals with volunteering? What might the relationship be between animals and volunteering? Do you know someone who volunteers? How do you perceive them? Do they have characteristics you would like to embody? If you were to receive supernatural help with regards to volunteering, what would that be? If you were to receive Guidance about volunteering, what would that be? What is the relationship for you between the Divine and volunteering?
Your mantra for receiving today could simply be “I open myself to receive” and see what comes through.
Apologies for posting a day late. I was laid up in bed yesterday, and Practice was done stationary.
I was taught that, if I go somewhere and don’t “feel a part of,” I should see where and how I can be of service, essentially volunteering, and then I am automatically a part of the event or group. People learn your name when you’re helping them out, they remember you, and they think of you positively.
When I am feeling poorly, the charitable nature of this idea is more challenging. This was brought home for me yesterday – I was feeling irritable towards people at one of my volunteer efforts, and had to practice restraint of tongue and pen while I reframed the situation so that I could remember what my purpose was. These things happen, and we can only do the best we can from minute to minute.
Every concept has a push and a pull to it. I am much better at giving than receiving much of the time. Yesterday, I had to allow myself to receive. My faith is always borne out when I do, as long as I don’t get in my own way. I asked a particular aspect of the Divine for assistance with how I was feeling, and felt called to look up an invocation to fashion into a song. Instead, what I found was a prayer from an established Abrahamic path that reaches out to that aspect of the Divine I was working with; on a mystical level, this prayer clears the energy between two concepts, a path that i have been wrestling with this month. It also clears the energy of old promises (essentially, karma) that can hold pain in our bodies (among other things). Many birds, one butterfly net, all because I opened myself to truly receive.