Tag: dreams

The Body of Night

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Energy Healing, Memoir, Reflections, Uncategorized6 Comments

IMG_2531I enter the dark body of night to heal. To recover the parts of me that have been lost to fear over lifetimes.

I’ve always enjoyed putting together puzzles. The more intricate and mysterious the art of creation, the more I am drawn into the process of discovery. I have found no better place to build the puzzle of self than at night, where I can slip into the inky abyss of darkness where everything exists. It can take some cunning and a good dose of courage to find what I am looking for. Night is the place where veils dissolve, and the landscape of the soul is laid bare. It is the place where mysteries blinded by the sun become tangible when we are brave enough to extend our grasp into the black abyss.

Each dream that unfolds through Night becomes a path with a promise of a gift, or many if we can find them hidden amid the shadows. The dreams that cause the greatest tremor of emotion within our “sleeping” form, often hold the most sought-after treasures. I have learned to love nightmares, for they lay bare those pieces that lurk in the crevices of self, which can only be found after putting the easy and obvious together. They are the stuff of the inside that likes to hide, deceptively camouflaged within an unassuming palette. Yes, it is these gems I know seek, for each piece recovered brings me closer to the whole self that is Love.

Love. That is, after all, what it is all about. This quest we are all on. It is said that to love another, we must first love ourselves. I believe that the more fully we love ourselves, the more fully we love others. I believe we can only love in others, what we love in ourselves, and when we are able to accept and unite those aspects of self that are mirrored uncomfortably in others, we finally achieve the whole self that is Love. When we do this, we are loving not the fear in the form of anger, injustice or abuse, but the aspect of universal self beneath it that we all share. The piece of self yearning to be whole that was once love/loved is still, in essence, love.

Now when I discover a piece of self that has become disconnected over (life)time(s), and has forgotten love in favor of the energy of fear, I rejoice. My dreams are a tool, they work with me, taking me down the paths of self-recovery. They lead me to the source, where the hand of fear tries to hide the light. The clues to how I got there are always found in the scenes. Past lifetimes are revealed with vivid faces, costumes and languages I have not encountered in this lifetime, interwoven with a present-day landscape. It is not my job to judge, but to accept. It is not my task to hold on, but to effortlessly let go. I am brought here to seek, to find, and unite into love. I have learned that our fears do make us stronger, when we accept them with understanding, release the energy that traps and reunite the lost love.

 

 

 

The Gifts of Night #dreams #sleep

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Memoir, Reflections, Uncategorized4 Comments

I used to go to sleep with Fear. When I was a child, I would check the shadowed corners of my room to see if a ghost, or some other unwelcome presence, was lurking there. Three glances for each corner, then I’d quickly tuck myself into bed, pulling the sides of the covers like a cocoon around my head with only my face exposed so I could breathe. My army of stuffed animals stood guard around the perimeter of my bed, yet my heart would often race my frantic thoughts to sleep.

More than the dark, I was afraid of what was hidden inside of it. I was raised with the belief that ghosts were not real and a fear of the dark was irrational, but my fear was real. It stayed with me long into adulthood and has diminished only over the past few years. Before it left me, Worry started moving in to take its place. Since Worry is a companion to Fear, it merely took the upper hand of an already present relationship.

Instead of fearing “imaginary” ghosts and demons, my mind played with Worry. As many of us do, I re-worried past events, going through the day’s circumstances that caused frustration or other unpleasant emotions within me. Instead of letting the past settle, I dug it back up and resisted sleep as I sifted through what I could no longer retrieve. Sometimes, I’d move into the future, creating a world of what ifs and maybes, mostly centered around the emotion of worry.

As I learn to live more fully in the present, I have find it easier to leave Worry and Fear behind when I tuck myself into bed at night. Most nights I go to bed with feelings of relief, gratitude, and expectation. In the soft cocoon of darkness, nestled under my covers (I still tuck them around my head, some habits stick fast), I welcome the unimpeded drift of the mind.

The veil that Ego grips more tightly during the day quietly dissolves at night when our minds drift into the intermediary realm that occurs before sleep takes over. In this space, Spirit moves freely and, when we are open to it, we travel and commune with beings from other realms often overlooked during the daytime. It is a time, I believe, filled with magic.

Art by Karen Kubicko
Art by Karen Kubicko

If  you are used to going to sleep holding the hands of Fear and Worry, try releasing them. Welcome instead the gentle embrace of Love. Imagine what wonders you will find!

4:30

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Reflections4 Comments

It was another night of fitful dreams. Three nights ago it was a house full of snakes. I was inside, and the floor was a moving mass of their rainbowed bodies. As I have mentioned in an earlier post, snakes have been coming into my life a lot lately. Last week, while on vacation, I went for a run by myself and passed first a dead snake, and then a living snake. The snake is a symbol of change and transformation.  As Denise Lynn writes in her book The Hidden Power of Dreams, it is an animal that is not to be feared when seen in a dream.  It is a messenger/symbol that awakens healing and creative energy inside of us.

After my dream of snakes, I experienced 2 nights of dreams filled with packing bags for a trip I was to make by myself. The destination was unclear, and there was anxiety over filling the bags too full, as well as what I was leaving behind. There were piles of clothes I didn’t need, including some that belong to my mother. This is linked to the snake message and their ability to shed their old skins, leaving them behind like the baggage of the past that is no longer needed and can weigh us down.

I was also concerned with leaving my family behind for this journey I was to make. Worry, as you know, can tangle and incapacitate, and I found myself anxious about making my flight. In last night’s dream, I was to leave at 4:30pm. Clearly I needed to remember these numbers, because even after I woke with my pains in my 2nd chakra (yes, clearly energy was trying to free itself) and tried to reprogram my mind for a new dream, the numbers and the preparations for my journey came back to me.

Recently, a friend of mine told about Joanne Sacred Scribes’ website on interpreting number sequences. Scribes looks at the number 4:30 as a compilation of the individual numbers. The number 4  evokes the Archangels, 3, the Ascended Masters, and 0, the Universe and its endless potential of God/Source energy. 4 is also a number of building foundations, family and stability.  The number evokes the 4 elements and sacred directions. It speaks of wholeness and unity.

The number 3 is symbolic of the trinity of mind/body/spirt and the sacred feminine energies of child/mother/crone. When one combines 3 and 4 to get 7, the symbolism turns inward, to the sacred wisdom inside of us and the energy force of our 7 chakras. It’s a personal path to spiritual truth.

I’ve been feeling the pull to journey to that place of deeper inner wisdom. It’s waiting for me to strip away the vestiges of fear and to trust what my soul already knows. It is  journey we are all called to take at some point in our lives (or at various times in our lives), when we open ourselves to the divine blueprint of our soul’s truth. Why we fear this, it’s hard to say. We get caught up in what we think (or thought) is reality. The mundane sequence of “living” envelopes us and we neglect that spark of unlimited potential inside of us. We are afraid of being different. Of being “wrong.” Of failing. And sometimes, we are afraid of our ego-less power.

The ego easily interferes, telling us that we are unworthy of being divine beings, and causes us to doubt our potential. At least that is the case with me. I rarely doubt the divine energies that come through during healing sessions with clients, but I tend to doubt when it happens to me alone. But this is shifting. I am coming to accept that my soul is patiently waiting for me to shed the skin of my past and walk the path of divine potential.

On the night of July 29th, I was given the keys and some of my guides. The messages were clear and strong, and even though my ego tried to step in and interfere, this was not the stuff of the imagination. What I have come to realize and accept is that we are all capable of journeying to our divine truth, that the guides and tools we need are just  beyond the gate of fear. The stripping away is both exiting and liberating. I was a girl, after all, raised on the belief that we lived a soulless life that ended upon death. You can, perhaps, understand how wonderful it is for me to accept that the fairies I wanted so fiercely to believe in are not only are real, they are more real than the truths I was raised on.  Nothing matches the feeling of meeting the Fairy Queen, of talking with angels and Ascended Masters, of traveling to other realms and entering the energy of animal guides. We find home when we open the channel to our higher selves, and relearning the ancient wisdom that we are being called to remember.  There’s nothing like connecting to the divine life force of love energy that connects all of us. It’s time to believe what we know to be true, to travel back through the head of the ankh and remember.  If I am being called to take this journey, so are you.

Multiple Messengers #watersymbolism #dreamsymbolism #animalmessengers

On By Alethea KehasIn Animal Messengers, Reflections4 Comments

Sometime Spirit likes to hammer the point home until we get it.  I find this happens when I am really being called to shift and get rid of old energies and systems of belief that are not serving my highest good. Since my mind likes to work with symbols and metaphors, I often get these messages in the form of animals and vividly detailed dreams. When I put all the pieces together the puzzle becomes complete and I really “get it.”

I’ll share my most recent series of messages as an example. It’s rather amusing when one lets go of self-frustration. Two nights ago I had a series of vivid dreams, of which I would now recall in more detail had I written them right down after waking. But, I think what I retained was enough to get Spirit’s point across, especially when combined with the other messengers that ensued.

In the dreams I found myself in a landscape of water (the element of emotion). The water was an ocean, and it was rising. As I made my way through the water I encountered a large (too large) seal. It was alive, but unmoving, floating like a buoy with its bloated belly turned toward me.

The seal as an animal messenger beckons us to awaken our imaginations and creativity. In his book Animal Speak, Ted Andrews writes, “If a seal or seal lion has shown up as a totem, it is time to do some questioning. Are you getting out of balance.” (pg. 311). Considering that my seal was bloated and unmoving, I would have to say yes.  Since I am a writer and my soul needs this form of creative nurturing, the seal was a “gentle” reminder to find space to feed this part of my soul.

What of the bloated belly though? One might say that the seal in my dream was over-fed. Now, let me tell you about the other vivid image that stayed with me from that night. Without going into too much detail, let’s just say I was on a toilet and a lot of waste was moving through me. Our physical bodies are responsible for storing, processing and getting rid of the energy we take in. Sometimes, when we harbor fears, these energies find a home within us and grow – they quite literally bloat our bellies, or cause dis-ease of some kind. As a former sufferer of IBS, I know too well this type of energy retention and the body’s struggle for release and balance. Although, two nights ago, I was not literally having an episode of IBS, spirit was showing me that it was time for a release of fears.

The following day, I went for a walk with the dogs and my eyes were pulled to the side of the road where a black snake lay curled in the sand. Again, my animal messenger was unmoving, although alive. The snake as a messenger seems to make an appearance in my life when I am in the process of, or am about to undergo, a big shift. As a totem/messenger, the snake awakens the dormant energies inside of us (it’s associated with the awakening of the kundalini energy at the base of our spine) and, through its ability to shed its entire skin, calls us to release our old self and rebirth.

The snake energy is associated with the 2nd chakra, where we house our sexual and creative energies. A chakra area that has been calling for attention and healing in my body.  The point of Spirit was really starting to hit home, but there were still two more messengers to consider.

Over the past few days I have, much to my dismay, encountered more than a few ants in my house. Through much investigation and cleaning, I discovered the lure – a jar of honey with a loose lid. Now I must confess that the ant is not one of the animals I tend to spare when I encounter them in my house, so I did my best to thank the universe while I sent the messengers down the drain with a good dose of the element of water.

It’s likely the message here was multifaceted. The ants were lured to honey – a sweet substance of life (and there may be an indirect message from bee here too, see below). Ants, as most people are aware, are quite industrious. They work in a complex social unit of cooperation and order. Andrews writes in his book: “The ant is the teacher of how to build, how to become the architect of your own life. It can show you how to construct your dreams into reality. It will show you that the greatest success occurs with persistence.” (pg. 336). I can safely say I have a few dreams I’d like to manifest into reality, some of which are directly related to writing.

Now let’s side-track a little and look at the bee, because we really should consider the lure of honey. Andrews states that “Bees are long-time symbols for accomplishing the impossible.” (pg. 337). Of course one might say that the impossible is only impossible inside the confines of our minds. Could it be that I am being called to actually enjoy, and find the sweetness inside, the process of manifesting my creative endeavors into reality (yes, there is a tone of irony here)?  Sometimes we do forget that life is supposed to be fun and filled with light and joy.

There’s just one more messenger I want to consider before I end this blog. The catbird. I seem to have a resident catbird outside my home that likes to make itself seen in my presence at the most telling of times. The catbird, with its talent for a wide range of songs, is a messenger of communication. This morning, when my friend the catbird appeared before me, I was quite literally thinking about my own communication blockages (related to the throat chakra in particular).

And so, it seems, spirit is calling me to the two chakras in most need of my attention – the 2nd, and also the 5th. Two chakras I feel are intimately connected. For when we manifest our creative gifts, we want to be sure we sing them in the clear, beautiful and enduring voice of our truth.

The Muse

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Memoir, Reflections4 Comments

While I form the narrative of a young adult novel, I find myself pondering the muse in its varied, colorful forms. Realizing, as I do, that the muse extends to life itself. Let me first take you back to the night. In the realm of dreams we set the scene for our days. During sleep our mind strays to far-off places, playing with scenes like a mad artist. Or, at least mine does.

I’m not going to dwell on the metaphysics of dreams in this blog (I’ve dabbled in this area in previous posts), I simply want to relate how one’s dreams set the stage for one’s day. When we wake in the morning we carry the residue of our dreams like a sticky syrup, which never fully washes away. Because of our dreams we start our days feeling grumpy, groggy, out-of-sorts, content or in a state of eager joy, ready to embrace the day’s gifts.

Here is where our day begins, with the sap of the dream-muse. Sometimes it’s delightfully sweet and we savor its taste for as long as we can, and sometimes it’s bitter and bothersome. I spend many a morning wishing I had experienced more joy in my dreams, yet some mornings I have greater success removing their sticky residue. On these days I remember that I am, after all, the writer of my own script.

Which, brings me back to writing. So, I’m writing my first Y/A novel, and I have found I am not a writer who works by scripting, in advance, the entire plot, from beginning, to middle, to end. I didn’t even do this with my memoir. Writing, for me, is an adventure of trust. It’s about taking the risk of not knowing what will come next, yet trusting that the next will appear at some point. On a good day, on a day when I open myself up to the muse of life (and writing), I find what I am looking for and what I need. The muse is always waiting to be let in when I quiet my mind and open the door.

Yet, the muse is not always what we might expect, or think we want. We writers know how it can take us to unexpected places, some of which are quite shocking and uncomfortable. Our muses can lead us to our darkest secrets, or the darkest secrets of our characters. And, they can also lead us to limitless joy or help us find the next leg in our journey or narrative. So, while it behooves us to allow the muse to enter into our minds and into our daily activities, it also behooves us to remember who writes the final draft.

Perhaps we’re not quite ready to look under that boulder we’ve stubbornly placed in our path for so long, perhaps we only want to nudge it a couple of inches. Or, likewise, perhaps we don’t want our characters to morph into unruly and wild creatures who will scare readers away. Then, we simply take the reins back, draw in the slack and tighten our grips a little. The muse, after all, knows no limits. It’s free and without restraint. When we allow it to ramble it can skip and dance us all over the place.

I’ll confess there are days when I want to follow the muse deep into the forest (both literal and metaphoric) until I lose myself in its mysteries, but there’s always the mundane (joys) of life waiting to be attended to. There are meals to cook, children to feed, clothes to be washed. And, there’s that idea of a book tame enough to be shared.

Surrender

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Energy Healing, Reflections4 Comments

surrender

The concept of surrender keeps appearing to me, during my days and nights. It comes cloaked in the words of my friends; it creeps into dreams on the back of nightmares; it shows up in the mirror.

My energy healer brought surrender to my attention recently, citing her own struggles, while gently nudging me to recognize mine own. Over the past week the call of surrender has appeared in myriad forms, making me aware of how universal its voice is.

When I explore the idea of surrender, I think about what binds us. Surrender, quite simply, is the opposite of resistance. Consider the pull of gravity as you climb a hill; consider the push of oars as you paddle your canoe against a strong river current; consider the tug of a child wanting to run free of your clutch.

What does it feel like to resist? What does it feel like to let go? What are you holding onto? I find what I am holding onto each night in my dreams. Here I struggle to let go of my fears, and some nights I experience the bliss of letting go.

We resist out of fear, and the impulse to control our fate and the fate of circumstance that are ultimately beyond our control. Resistance creates knots is our stomachs, our shoulders, and our necks. It quite literally traps the flow of our energy centers, densely packing pockets that bind. Resistance creates imbalance both internally and externally. The flow of energy inside of us is impeded, as well as the energy that we give and receive externally – that beautiful state of balance our souls seek to achieve with the universal flow of energy.

Consider the effects of letting go – of surrendering as you go about the day – and notice what is causing you to constrict the easy flow of your energy. Perhaps your trigger will be a misplaced phone, being late for a meeting, a beautiful home you see in a magazine, a jar of pickles that you are sure you purchased, but never made their way into your pantry, or the feeling of illness trying to manifest itself inside your cells.

What is it like to experience your triggers of resistance? How do they make you feel? When I think of the opposite of resistance – surrender, I see an eagle or a hawk soaring with the currents of wind; I think of a leaf, floating gently down a stream; I think of a healthy, radiant, balanced body. For me these are images of absolute freedom, and represent the beautiful, natural flow of energy.

Many spiritual leaders are calling our attention to the surge of flu outbreaks and other widespread illnesses that our occurring right now, as a reminder of what we are individually and collectively holding onto. For, when we let our fears bind us to tightly, we make an easy host to illness. Now, more than ever, as we seek to move into higher frequencies of existence, we are being nudged (sometimes not too gently), to let go of resistance. It all, of course, comes down to fear, and sometimes it’s so deep-seated we don’t know where to begin to untie its cords. Yet, with each snip of release – each surrender to what is beyond our “control” – we move closer to a state of peace and freedom. We move closer to the harmonic frequency of love.

For a wonderful (and soothing) example of the harmonious flow of energy, please watch this Bird Ballet video:
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/01/bird-ballet-thousands-of-birds-dance-in-the-sky/

Lament

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Energy Healing, ReflectionsLeave a comment

This morning I find myself sitting beside  a stove where fire melts wet wood, and provides a warm contrast to the wonderfully white world outside my window. I am thankful for the heat, the beauty, and the quite solitude that blesses my morning, yet here I am writing about lament.

Lament was the subject of the poem that came to me as I gazed at the falling snow. I barely thought about its meaning as I scribbled down the flow of words. Moments later, I paused to check Facebook, and there it was, a friend’s lament over missed chances; over not heeding her inner voice, until, she feared, it was too late.

Of course, it’s never too late.  The voice is still there, waiting to be heard. There is only the present to retrieve our gifts. The past is but a memory, reminding us of what we still can be. Of what we still are, if only we trust enough to heed our inner voices and become our truths. Does lament for lost opportunities, or lost “time,” really serve us? Perhaps it can, if we let it, spur us into action. Perhaps we can use it as a nudge to push us over possibility. The Now is the time to follow your heart and heed that inner voice. Once you realize that you are in control, that only your fears hold you back, you can start chipping away at them.

Last week, I launched my dream to help others. It took, I’ll admit, a large dose of courage to get there. It took a lot of chipping away and healing, and there was more than an once of doubt trying to taint its sweetness, but I did it. What is your dream? Here’s mine:

inner truth healing http://innertruthhealing.com/home/

Listen to Your Heart Song

On By Alethea KehasIn Reflections7 Comments

I graduated college with two degrees, one in English and one in biology, and three different graduate programs/schools to choose from. Looking back it’s easy enough to see that I was confused about what direction I wanted to follow, but instead of  looking inward for the answers, I did what I was used to doing. I looked outward. I chose prestige. I accepted the PhD track program in molecular biology and biochemistry at the ivy league school, telling myself as I did so that I could go anywhere (5-7 years later) with that degree beside my name. I lasted a year, during which I was mostly miserable.

Dropping out of that program was one of the hardest things I had ever done. I felt I had failed myself and my family. I had yet to fully realize I was trying to live someone else’s dream. Of course, if I knew what I know now I would not have gone. I would have heeded the voice of spirit that would often startle me from my dreams by shouting my name, “Alethea,” in my ear. Ah, that call to Truth ignored!

Some of us choose detours full of bumps and hurdles before we finally start walking our true paths. Ask a five year old what she wants to be when she grows up, and pay attention. It’s likely she’ll answer from her soul’s truth – that place inside of her that still knows without the trappings of ego or other people’s truths, why she came into this life. When I was five I knew without a shadow of a doubt I was here to be a writer, a mom and do something bigger than myself  to help the world.  But, I held tightly to two of those truths, afraid to follow their songs.

Today, I was reminded, as I often am these days, how important it is to listen to my heart’s song. I spent the morning talking about poetry and writing erasure poems with my daughter’s third grade class. Time flew, and I left with more energy, so much more, than I awoke with. This is what happens when we follow our soul’s truth. We feel energized and alive. We feel wonderful.

Each time I write a piece of prose or a poem with the lyrics of my heart, my being sings with the energy that I have allowed to flow. A few years ago, when I went to graduate school again, this time for writing, I experienced this sensation, which I also call “home,” nearly every moment of each day. I never doubted I was where I belonged. For my teaching practicum I followed the internal tug drawing me to the state’s prison for women, and was rewarded by the sensation of walking on air almost every time I would pass through its doors to return home. Not only was I teaching what I loved, I was helping women like me. Women who had lost their voices by going down the wrong path.

Even though it took me many years to follow my heart song, I feel fortunate and grateful each day that I have found my path of Truth. The trappings of the ego, of guilt, and of fear, can be strong and over-powering. It can take great courage to break free from their holds. Although I take pleasure out of my own children’s successes in life that are ego-based, I desire above all else for them to find and follow their own heart songs.

If you have not yet followed your own path of truth, take a moment to go back to that five year old self still inside you. Ask her what makes her sing. If you end your days depleted and cranky, you are probably on a detour. In contrast, if most of your days are filled with energy and light, you are listening to the lyrics of your heart song. When you do this, you nurture yourself and the universe. You are living your soul’s purpose.

Go to Sleep with Love

On By Alethea KehasIn Energy Healing, Reflections2 Comments

This morning I listened to a replay of Jo Dunning on Healing with the Masters with Jennifer McLean. During her hour-long talk, Jo discussed energy work and actions we can take to clear old energies to make way for the higher vibrations that are coming in for us. Specifically the energies of Love, Peace and Harmony. One simple way to do this, she said, is to go to sleep with Love.

Sometimes I write down my dreams, but lately I have not. Most of the dreams I have recalled lately when I wake, have been mirrors of old anxieties playing out in different scenarios, or simply attachments from the previous day. I have gotten used to reading the messages in these dreams and I know what I still need to release. Of course, releasing is another matter.

Whatever needs to come up for us, will come up in our dream-state. When we have unpleasant dreams, we are being asked to look at what is no longer serving us for our highest good and to release it. One way to do aid this process of reprogramming our thoughts into those that vibrate with a higher frequency, is to go to bed with Love. Instead of playing out the scenes that bothered us from the day in our minds, we can consciously focus on something that fills us with Love. It is simple in theory, as Jo pointed out. One might focus on a pet, a lover, a child or a beautiful landscape. I would add, let your senses play with that image that you bring to mind and create it in detail. Linger on it as you fall to sleep and let your soul take care of the rest.

Stepping into Joy

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Memoir, ReflectionsLeave a comment

I love Denise Linn and her wisdom. Today these words of hers appeared on my FB wall, “When you step into your joy, you’ll recognize the need to release people that consistently make you feel anything less. Be your own fierce protector.”

The more light we let in, the less room there is for pain. Pockets of dense matter suddenly start breaking away. But, it is not always an easy process. In my last blogs I have  spoken of my struggle to heed the urgings of my guides and their messages that have often come through so strongly in my dreams and meditations. Recognizing that I have immersed myself and my family in an environment that I had tried to believe was premised on love and community, but was really dominated by the undertones of fear, has been difficult, at best.

These last few weeks I have struggled to break free. I have felt anger, sadness, guilt and remorse. I have felt alone, as the resistance extends to my family. But I have also felt the undertones of freedom and my own personal power. I know that sometimes relationships are meant to end, having served out their purposes, it is time to move on. Yet, sometimes we need to be “fierce” in our approach to break free from an environment that we now recognize as abusive. The other people involved will not see themselves in the same way we now perceive them, as they are still living in that place trapped by pain. They will often try to keep your ties firmly knotted, so that you remain in a place of less light. It makes them feel better. It makes their pain bodies feel powerful.

I also know that I have benefitted from these circumstances. Each is a lesson; a chance to grow and move to a place of more light and healing. More light seeps into the pockets of pain, breaking away the dense energy that has been trapped. I am reminded that when we are called to move beyond a place of pain, all parties benefit, even if it is not recognized. The worst thing we can do is to stay in an effort to protect the egos of others. We must have the courage to see beyond to the soul, realizing that when we act from the seat of our heart, we can only help the souls of others.