Compassion, our only bloody hope...

Compassion. It's not just a word. It's a way of being. It's not just a concept. It's love in action. It's not just something we conveniently practice. It's something we consistently embody. Compassion for those who are struggling. Compassion for our shared humanness. Compassion for the courage it takes to make it through. Unity begins and ends with compassion. I see me in you, I see you in me, and I want us to live from love together.

We are the book of our life...

Turning to a guru or a spiritual teacher to tellus why we are here is a big mistake, and often, an expensive one. Others can provide us with tools that help us to clear the blockages to clarity, but they cannot tell us which path to walk. That's becasuse our sacred purpose is privately held; it is encoded within us, embodied and embedded, a karmic blueprint that can only be read by the one who carries it. That's why not a single soul on earth can tell us why we are here. They can't decipher a language that is unique to another soul, no matter what claims they make. It's one of the most beautiful things about this human trip: the divine blessed each of us with our own secret lexicon, a unique karmic code that will never be replicated again. We are the book of our life. Now all we have to do is figure out how to read it. One soul page at a time... - Jeff Brown, Spiritual Graffiti

We heal in unison...

We must not give up. It takes so much time to heal because we are not just healing our own wounds, we are healing the world's wounds, too. We think we are alone with our 'stuff', but we aren't. With every clearing of our emotional debris, with eery forway into a healthier way of being, wiht every excaation and release of old material, we heal the collective heart. So many of our familial and karmic ancestors had little opportunities to heal their pains. When we heal, their spirits breathe a sign of relief. We heal them backwards, while healing ourselves forward. We heal in unison. - Jeff Brown, Spiritual Graffiti

Only a small few can hold the gate open...

There is often someone running away from a beautiful love connection, but it's seldom the brave one. The brave one is usually the one left behind. It seems counter-intuituve to romantics and those who feel ready to partner when someone walks away. But some people can only handle a half-love because a whole love shines a light on their dark places. Real intimacy requires real presence. If someone isn't ready to be tuly here on an individual level, they will find it very difficult to manage all the triggers that come up in connection. Only a small few can hold the gate open when profound love enters. A blessed and courageous few. - Jeff Brown, Spiritual Graffiti

Some people need to create a nightmare far worse than the one they came from before they will go back and heal their early wounds...

Some people need to create a nightmare far worse than the one they came from before they will go back and heal their early wounds. We see this in trauma survivors all the time. They pile hell upon hell, until they have only two choices, die, or heal the wounds they are fleeing. I used to find this confusing, but I no longer so. Sometimes the first hell was so bloody bad that i takes a far worse hell to uncover it. Bows to those who choose to heal their hells, after so many years on the run. Bows to those courageous beings who give reality a try before they have any evidence that it will serve them. If this isn't courage, I don't know what is. - Jeff Brown, Spiritual Graffiti

Better an authentic frown...

I am always surprised when friends apologize for being in a bad moon, or sharing their life challenegs when I bump into them, as though there is something wrong with sharing our difficulties with each other. This is yet another exmaple of the bullshit positivity world we have created in western life, where we are only acceptable to each other if we share good news. I wonder if we have communicated the message that someone else's bad news is unacceptable because we are trying to bypass our own difficulties. Whatever it is, this has to stop. We aren't going to co-create a genuinely positive world until we can hold the space for each other's shadown. Better an authentic frown than an inauthentic smile any day. A smile that is built on a pretentious foundation isn't a smile at all. - Jeff Brown, Spiritual Graffiti

Fall in love with yourself.
Settle down into the truth of your existence, that you matter.
Make a commitment to self-empowerment.
Be in a relationship wiht self-worth.
Don't make bids for love and attention in places where there is no genuine interest.
Rather, go where you're joyfully acknowledged as you make a vow to cherish
your deserving and precious life. - Susan Frybort

"Maybe we had an underdeveloped way of perceiving love, as we fed from the crumbs that fell at our feet and were just getting by. Maybe we gave away so much and lost touch with our worth. Maybe we never understood the importance of receiving or expressing our needs. Maybe love was never modeled to us healthily Whatever the reasons, we are here to personally learn what it is that keeps us from loving ourselves as we practice opening our hearts and letting someone in. - Susan Frybort

It’s difficult to let go of the pattern—often born in our childhood tendency to try to get love from a stone (neglectful parents)—to be attracted to those who are impossible. It’s like only the emotionally unavailable are credible because they reflect back to us what we came to believe about ourselves—that we are unworthy of love and it’s this odd illusion that if we can get the inaccessible to love us that we will finally have our parents love. The more obvious approach— that we share love with someone who can truly give it—often gets lost in the karmic shuffle. This pattern is not an easy one to break, but break-through it we must if we are going to finally surrender to the love we deserve. One of the keys to working this through is to see the parents for who they really are—in their own issues and limitations—so that their lens on you loses its grip. Another is building the self-concept from the inside out—learning to rely on yourself for validation—and, when you are ready, inviting those who value you a little closer... - Jeff Brown, Spiritual Graffiti

Compassion demands that we hold the space for other's challenges with a wide open heart. - Jeff Brown

I am so tired of people saying, "You are exactly where you are supposed to be," no matter what someone's life circumstances and challenges. Yes, there is no question that we can often learn something of value wherever we are on the path; and yes, we may have, in some situations, attracted the exact challenge that we need to grow, but that does not mean that we are always where we are supposed to be, or that we chose our reality. Telling that to someone in every situation, even when they are ill and suffereing tremendously, is arrogrant, and adds insult to injury. Sometimes we need a kick in the ass, and sometimes we are just a victim of terrible circusmstances. Sometimes we chose our reality, and sometimes it just chose us. Sometimes our suffereing is needless and the result of other people's wrongdoing. Compassion demands that we hold the space for other's challenges with a wide open heart. Let them decide if they are exactly where they are supposed to be. It's not for us to say. - Jeff Brown, Spiritual Graffiti

Some people feel that they're being good friends, or good partners, when they give without ever asking for help. The ones who identify themselves as ' selfless givers.' But what they don't realize is that they are actually limiting the depths of the connection by keeping it a one way street. They are stealing opportunities to get closer, to deepen in intimacy. Because when we deny the other person the chance to help us, we never taste the vulnerability of receiving. And they are prevented from experiencing the delights of being there for someone they love. Giving and receiving tightens bonds. - Jeff Brown, Spiritual Graffiti

Spiritual Graffiti

It's hard to let go when we don't know why they're gone. It's natural to want an explanation, an understanding, something that puts their leaving into perspective. It's hard to move on when there is nothing but silence, or worse, a strangely formal way of relating, as though you made the whole thing up. But we can't put our lives on hold, waiting for an answer that may never come. Maybe they will tell us one day, or maybe they will never understand it themselves. It isn't that important. What is important is that we don't abandon ourselves in the heart of loss. That we don't make another's presence more important than our own. That we don't lock ourselves in a prison of our own making, waiting for an external liberator to set us free. If they have left, we have to leave too. We have to let the pain through the holes they left behind so it can find its ultimate destination. Because we have so much left to do. Our precious life waits on no one. - Jeff Brown, Spiritual Graffiti