Thank you to my Followers, Please read

Thank you so much specifically to those of you who signed up to be a follower of this blog. I truly appreciate each one of you and would like to invite each one of you to now become a subscriber of a new blog that I have started. The new blog is www.spiritexpressionbook.com To become a subscriber is free and it is my deep hope that this new site will become more interactive and a kind of online community dedicated to sharing the principles in my book Spirit Expression for EveryOne, A Guide to Living a Soul Driven Life.

I have been out of pocket as we are traveling for the last period of time. I have today posted new blogs on the new site and I would love to have you sign up at the new site and continue to comment and share your inner spirit expression with each other.

Many of you, that are not followers on this site, have let me know that you are reading the site and also send me some of your thoughts. I truly appreciate this and now invite you to please comment and post on the new site. I have begun to ask a question in bold at the end of most every post. I would truly love to hear what you have to say on each topic.

The name of our new ministry is Spirit Expression Ministry, ADL. We continue to be dedicated to the concept that each one of us has our own unique relationship with spirit and that when we can share these unique inner spiritual expressions with each other, then we can help create a world of spiritual acceptance and peace. This seems especially important in today's world of Koran burnings and religious intolerance.

Again, I thank you and invite you to a new updated experience. Hope to see you at www.spiritexpressionbook.com.

Blessings and gratitude,
Rev.Cathy Haven Howard

Magical Places

8.29.10 Lummi Island
We have been honored and in awe to be guests of our friends Jim and Mary Ross at their beautiful home on Lummi Island in the San Juan Islands. There home was built on the side of the hill overlooking the straits and other islands. Their home was built at angles to take full advantage of as much of the view as possible. It is a true panorama.

Being here I am watching the stress of the days of being on the road and having to get somewhere at a certain time, gradually fall away. Every time I would catch a new breathtaking view of the ocean from their home, I would say out, "How Beautiful!" Mary would say back, yes it is a magical place... I began to think about what that really meant, to be a magical place?

For me the magic of this place seems to be that the sky, the clouds, the ocean, the sunsets all seem to conspire to give you a gift every moment. They are always changing and moving moment by moment. It is a gift that seems to keep allowing itself to be opened every morning. I keep taking picture after picture so that I can remember all of the subtle changes.. and then I realize that is so much within the windows of this home and out on the road, that I cannot capture it all, and that is part of the magic.

The way the sun plays as diamonds on the water is part of the magic. The way the sun creates light even after it is gone from your sight is part of the magic. The ability to see the currents in the ocean and watch the constant movement is part of the magic. It is sheer delight and brings that child up to greet each moment with a deep reverence and joy simultaneously.

Magic is that place where you something happens that you did not think could happen in the way that your rational mind tells you it should. My rational mind did not think that should beauty was always available right outside your window.

Thank you spirit and dear friends for this sharing.

The Holding Up Tree

8.27.10 Lummi Island
Right after I wrote the last post on this blog, I looked out into the campground and across the little road and there was this tree. I heard this is The Holding Up Tree. I felt as if I had been given a new tree to guide me in this phase of my life. I had loved and been in communication with the Heartwood Tree for the last ten years, and now there was a new gift.

We were trying to pack up and leave the campground but I felt as if I had to take pictures and spend some time with my arms and hands on this amazing tree. Here is what I heard:

I have stood here for hundreds of years. My roots are deep and yet at the same time I hold up my arms in great gratitude. I know no other way to stand. Respect the elder wisdom of the trees and that flows within you. Know that the small things that seem so important on one day will not stand up over time. Let the water in your life pour through the ridges of your soul and let it seep deeply into your roots. For you, your roots do not have mean the things that keep you stationary, but rather that which nourishes you and waters your life. Another way of looking at this is what keeps your well full.

Remember the body soul stance that I represent. Hold up your life, your friends, your family into the great water of the All That Is.

Holding Up

8.25.10 McChord Air Force Base, outside of Tacoma WA
I keep hearing the phrase, "How then shall I pray?" It reminds me of Wayne Muellar that has written the book, How then shall we live?, but more than anything it keeps bring me back to a place of wondering how to pray, what words to use and how to really be with my requests to God.

In meditation I heard the following: Even when you pray the words "highest and best" for someone, it denotes a judgment on your part. This is not the language of spirit. We know that you are thinking that you know that there is a best place for yourself or the loved ones that you pray for, but this type of language asks for a distinction between something being better over another situation or person or thing that might happen. Do you see the difference?

At that time I felt something pour over me. It felt as if it was an expansive peace that pulled me in all directions. It felt expansive and deep at the same time. It felt as if I was tapping into something that I can only explain as a channel of frequency. It felt as if in this place there was no right or wrong, good or bad as we so want to label every event in our life. In this place there was only the sensation of knowing a connection to something beyond words and easy knowing. For me, the words that reflect this feeling is the ALL THAT IS.

I then asked the question, "Well then what words do I use?" What I saw and felt then was not really in words. It was a "holding up" sensation. I saw myself holding up each person and situation that I prayed for literally with my arms. I felt the immediate sensation of, "this is too heavy and I can't do this alone." Then I saw the image that I had during my surgery in 97, one of many hands of all different sizes and shapes holding me up to the heavens. I saw and felt that this is what we can do, hold our loved ones and ourselves up to that frequency, that place of the deep knowing of the ALL THAT IS. We can lay them on the altar of love, put them in the space where there is no judgment or control on our part, but rather this deep knowing that they are being held in the light of love that knows no earthly words of good or bad or even highest or best.

I guess I now felt as if I knew that maybe that when I have prayed for the highest and best for someone, it was really for this space of connection, one that just holds us with deep unconditional love.

I am interested in knowing "How then do you pray?"

You must be under 10 years of age

8.24.10 Salem, OR
Yesterday was a hard day. We found ourselves turning into what we thought was a way across the highway only to find it was a left hand turn lanes with a cement median for people going the other way. With the Airstream, once you have made the turn, you find that you cannot easily back up or readjust yourself mid turn. Luckily no came to make a left hand turn as we were waiting. We were able to make the turn into the parking lot. We still were shaken and could not find an easy place to eat so we went on. This is something that you do not think of when you are in a car in a new place trying to find some food. One of our biggest issues is how we can find a place where we want to eat the food and that has parking lots that can accomodate and let us turn around or get out of the parking lot. You really do not know until you turn in there and then like we found yesterday... you could be in a spot where there really is no place to park. So, here again, you are on to the new plan...

The next thing we tried was to find an RV park further up in Oregon off I5. We use Passport America, Good Sam's Club and the military famcamps as our primary camping places since they can give us discounts. I began the process of searching on my iPhone and in our books. I was not having much luck. Finally we decided to stay in Salem and Ted made the first call. The person taking the reservations began asking Ted questions that I had never heard before. He was saying things about the age of our Airstream. "It is a 1974." "I would say it is in good condition." Then he said, "what is this about? The appearance?" And then he laughed... I could tell that they were saying something about us not being in good enough shape for their RV park. Then he asked if they could give him any other numbers of RV parks in the area. I got mad. I said, "Just get off the phone." I did not want him to talk to these people any more.

I was mad. I could not believe that they would reject us for having a vintage trailer sight unseen. I love the funkiness of our Airstream, plus I like not being like everyone else when we pull into these RV parks. I don't like the fact that everything has to conform, they all have to be white or neutral colors. Everyone has to line up in the literal and figurative sense of the word. Does not seem right. I watched myself get madder and madder.

We called another place they did not ask about the age of our RV. The name of the place was Hee Hee Illihee. I felt that they must have a sense of humor. When we got here and were checking in I saw on a sign with the rules, which were extensive that once again, that your trailer had to be under ten years old. This time they could see the Airstream. They did not ask. I felt uncomfortable. I did not want to be asked the age and have to leave and find a new place to park. This RV park is new and when we spilled some cheese off our tacos on the cement before we had even ate our dinner, Ted ran inside and got the broom to sweep it up. We were very much trying to conform, not draw attention to ourselves, go along with the game plan. As were sitting outside having dinner and listening to the people next door talk trash during our dinner, I said to Ted, "This is not the way that I want to live." He said, "I know."

Get up and Walk

8.23.10 Mount Shasta CA

We traveled all day yesterday through the northern inland valley of California. We bounced along some of the roughest roads we have encountered until we came to flat lands of I5. At the end of the day we found ourselves coming into the mountains of Mount Shasta. It felt like a breath of pine air. There was even snow on the mountain.

In meditation this morning I heard: "Get up and Walk. Get up and Walk." I knew we were at a place called Abrams Lake. Ted had already reported that it was really just a pond, but I thought that I would walk out and see for myself.

Almost immediately I saw a man walking and asked him about where Abrams Lake was. He said, this is it. You can walk around it in five minutes, but this is a special place. Then he told me that he had been ill and could not have walked around the lake just a week ago. I told him to have a nice day and kept walking in the other direction. As I came around the lake, I saw him coming the other direction around the pond. He laughed and started telling me more of his story. He was in a lot of pain and welling up with tears. Again, I felt the need to keep walking. Then as I was going around the lake a second time, I saw him again. I heard, "This is why you were supposed to walk."

We ended up talking and I told him I was a minister. I told him about the Alliance of Divine Love and that he was surrounded by his unseen spirit support team. We prayed by the side of the lake. I told him that I would come back with a copy of my book. I told him about how i was told to get up and walk today. I felt that this was the reason. He willed up in tears again.

I keep learning and relearning about listening and then acting on what we hear. It sometimes does not seem to make sense at the time, but then you see the see the beauty of the All That Is working in your life. .

Letting Your soul catch Up

8.21.10 Monterey

I remember the first time that I heard the story about the villagers in Africa that walked across one of the big deserts, like the Sahara or the Kalahari. There were going to deliver a message of great importance to the people in the village on the other side of the desert. It took them days to get there and it was tiring and arduous. When they got there they came and ate and drank with the villagers. They did not tell them the message. The villagers got impatient. They said, “Why don't you tell us why you came here? The messengers looked at each other and said, “We are waiting for our souls to catch up with us. Our souls do not travel as fast as we do. When our souls get here, we will tell you.”

We have been on the road for three weeks. Today in the fog of Monterey, I am hearing, “ Let your soul catch up with you. This is a day to catch up with yourself.”

In meditation I heard the following:

This is a time to learn new skills, but they cannot be learned in the traditional way. It is also a new way of learning. At first might feel that it is rough like when you walk in bare feet over rocks and pebbles. This might feel like the inner world of your soul. All of this is as it should be. It should not feel familiar and some of the time you will cry out in pain. Some of the time you might want to abandon the journey and return to what you know as comfort and familiar. All of this is as it should be. This is not the time to judge yourself. This is not the time to use old methods of creating meaning in your life. Yes, it is known that if feels like you must give up all that has had meaning for you. A complete revaluation of what is important is necessary in this next phase of life. You have already started to see that you do not need as much as you thought that you did. Again, you throw away, give away, leave for the next one, discard and abandon the possessions and the thoughts that no longer serve you.

Now is the time to have faith. Now is the time to remember that when a space is created with intention for the good, guidance and love will flow into that space. You will not be abandoned. You will not be left standing naked with no resources. It is just that your resources and the things that you will use to clothe yourself will look very different than they did before. Does that make sense? So there might be a period of time where you feel as if you are naked and without all that held you together before, but this is just a place of transition and transformation. Think of what the caterpillar feels before it goes into the cacoon and becomes a butterfly. Doe it truly know what the next phase is going to be like and feel like?

Remember also the fast flowing river. Your journey right now is like through your traveling. Remember that is fine to kick out of the river from time to time and find that quiet pool and let your soul catch up.