There’s always a good reason behind our emotional contractions. If we go into the density instead of taking a happy pill or dulling ourselves with alcohol, we can permanently dissolve the ideas we hold that are not in alignment with our soul’s truth. We can gain amazing insights. And then we get real joy.

A strange distractedness is floating around, and I walk in and out of its cloud throughout the day, losing awareness then regaining it suddenly. Wow, it’s so easy to space out! I have to MAKE myself go outside and smell wet leaves; today I picked up a lemon-yellow sycamore leaf the size of a plate that shocked me awake and catalyzed awe.

The last week or two I’ve noticed that my sleep/dream state has been deep yet mildly disturbing. I have not been able to remember distinct dreams but wake feeling like I’ve been very busy and pressured.

When you live in a house for many years, sometimes your eyes become so accustomed to the view, to the relationships between objects, that you forget why you acquired and put the things in their order.

What I love about Steinbeck is that he wrote about what he knew; didn’t try to be fancy. He penetrated into the ordinary, let everyday folks be profound, showed us that we all have that inspirational nature inherent within ourselves, that just by being ourselves we contribute amazing things.

The advantage of having life slow down is that the more subtle lessons, that I might normally gloss over, can knock me over the head with their brilliant love and humor.

I took a teleclass on internet marketing hosted by 2 high-powered consultants-to-the-stars, reportedly raking in megabucks. One guy said he had hired a personal trainer to get him going at 6:30 in the morning and now he has even MORE energy to use for getting those big contracts! Every minute of the day is productive.

My friend Karen and I got together one night to have a study group—just the 2 of us. We read passages from some books and settled into a theme concerning how we were going to call forth and materialize the next period of our lives.

I was talking to a wise, highly experienced colleague of mine, who recently had a novice medical intuitive volunteer a diagnosis. It seems she had something growing in her brain, or possibly a vein was going to explode. My friend’s intuition told her the information was way off, but it had been delivered firmly as a pronouncement of truth. In spite of her common sense, this intrusion of negativity into her reality made an unwelcome impression that she couldn’t shake.

I called my niece Julia to wish her a happy 15th birthday and we chatted wittily away. Finally I said, “I’m happy that you’re happy,” and she immediately followed with, “I’m happy that you’re happy.” We laughed. Later in the car, I thought: this cyclical, nonending commentary is the true talk of souls. I’m happy that you’re happy. We cause each other’s joy by our own joy because the other’s joy IS our joy.

I hope celebrity isn’t the way only we are distinguishing what to pay attention to, as though what stands out the most has the most worth. To me, celebrity can breed shallowness and lead to lack of innovation and evolution, because they must maintain audience attention to remain in the spotlight. Do they have a true chance to enter liminal space and recoup their energy and true connection with source? Does ego develop where it is not wanted?

Perhaps enlightenment is simply following the sequence of innate desires as they arise—the previous bubble allowing a path for the next bubble to surface, and pretty soon there are no more bubbles, no more yes, buts, no more interferences.