There are many forms of blindness.

There are those who stop seeing because physically their eyes or their brain are no longer capable of producing the result we call sight. And there are others’ whose thoughts are so thick that they see the world through a logjam of beliefs, ideas and ideologies, expectations, hopes and habits resulting in a different loss of sight.

©David C. Mackenzie

We’re referring to this logjam kind of blindness. And the cure comes from understanding the difference between “seeing” and “looking” and growing the skill of seeing.

It’s easier than you ”think”.

At this time in the world, we all need our sight to chart a course for Life.

This kind of blindness is just as powerful as a physical disability in our eyes, perhaps even worse in its outcome.  And this blindness comes from our domesticated thinking patterns creating a dense fog in our minds that cloud our natural desire and capacity to see with our hearts.

The vision of the heart promotes the vibrancy of Life that comes from Soul forward seeing. This is the kind of “seeing” that results in “ a knowing that you know that you know.” Remember how good that feels?

When we “look” for something, we look through filters that are attached to ideas, beliefs or doctrines. We look out into a world with a filter that wants to be confirmed or connected to what’s in front of us. Looking is what feeds our beliefs.

Wonder turns on seeing. It is the artist eyes within you, the real you that turns on and simply sees the truth, beauty, uncertainty and aliveness of Life itself right in front of you.

So, Ask yourself am I seeing or looking?

Seeing occurs in the present.  Looking happens through the lens of the past.

To see or not to see?  That is the question.

All the great art in the world has come from the act of seeing, not looking. You have a seer inside you that wants to give you your version of a Mona Lisa or a Sistine Chapel everyday.

You don’t have to paint it or make it you can just see it.

What’s the cure for this kind of blindness?
Here are some first steps to free your seeing.

1. Wonder- The simple act of wondering, seeing beyond the fenced in world of the predictable will activate your Soul forward seeing.

2. Notice- When you notice the logjam of beliefs, memories, and hammered in patterns are in the way, they stop.

3. Be Curious- You can reclaim your pure sight, your soulful seeing, simply by being curious about how you came to see the world a certain way.

Wonder, noticing and curiosity will clear the logjam and give you moments of freedom and beauty and restore your birthright to see the word before you anew. It will feel like a breath of fresh air.

I’m Irregular How About You?

David likes music especially drum rhythms.  You know like beat, beat pause, pause, pause beat.  Irregular beats make the most beautiful and amazing music. But what about when the drum of life is irregular, when you actually have an irregular heartbeat? 

©Susan S. Perkins

About a month ago, we were sitting in meditation when David felt compelled to check his pulse. But something had changed! The regular heartbeat he once had wasn’t there anymore. Instead it was beat, beat, pause beat, beat, beat pause……… It was irregular, really irregular!

All sorts of questions and concerns ran through our heads. – Was it our move to Mexico or the higher altitude, was there something going on in his body he needed to attend to? The arrhythmia wasn’t subtle. … and while we remained relatively calm, we have to admit we each felt scared about the implications we imagined!

Data is always helpful, so he visited the cardiologist, the heart hospital, and our naturopath. Nothing major showed up in need of immediate action. Thankfully, he learned that this type of arrhythmia isn’t fatal. Relieved that there wasn’t something in need of immediate attention, we inquired further…

So, why the change of heart?  Why couldn’t he change it back to the way it was? Was his heart rate supposed to return to it’s former regularity? What other perspective would help bring light to this different biological state?

Sometimes we want things to be the old way. Old heart, old ideas, old life. Life is always new, in the now, and sometimes we try to live backwards and that’s hard on us.

Here’s a great quote our friend Nancy G. Shapiro’s upcoming book that offers a reframe of what a healthy heart is.

“If the heartbeat has a more rigid pattern— less freedom, less range of movement, less chaos in its strange attractor—the computer readout then looks like the child was trying to color over something and stay within the lines, scribbling pretty much in one place, back and forth, up and down. This heart, and the human it belongs to will most likely have health problems. Flexibility and adaptability—in other words, a bit of chaos—equal freedom, vitality, and life-force. It’s a paradoxical state derived from staying within a desired pattern while having the ability to move out of that pattern when the necessities of health and wholeness require it.”

Our friend Nancy was an ally who didn’t push us into fixing a problem. And looking beyond the symptoms for a different perspective has really been great for our hearts.  David’s been making friends with this new rhythm. He’s been focusing into the space between the heartbeats and feeling his life there.

As you adjust to the changes that might be occurring in your life right now, we invite you to also try a change of perspective:

Instead of making something wrong, consider it an evolutionary step. Sure hearts need care but it’s how we see change that’s the problem. David could be worrying himself to death. Instead he’s been loving riding his mountain bike, gathering the necessary data and receiving the wisdom in this new rhythm in his heart.

This is a time to embrace a new rhythm.

How’s your heart? Are you making friends with it in a new way?

We’d love to hear from you.

©David C. Mackenzie

copyright David C. MacKenzie

Over the last four months our lives have gone through a wonderful, powerful and life changing evolution. We write this from our new home in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.

While visiting San Miguel last summer, we were unmistakably called to be here. We knew it was time to move into what our hearts were longing for even though it meant moving away from those we loved.

There is a risk involved when our lives call us to leave behind what is familiar and comfortable. Yet, richness of life awaits each of us when we recognize that the familiar, even the homey, may in fact be shackling us to a past that longs to be complete.

Not far from where we live are two Mayan observatories where very accurately the Mayan’s mapped the ebb and flow of the universe with extraordinary precision.

Time here in Mexico is imbued with a richness and a different structure than in other parts of the world. The concept of time is more like a spiral expanding in contrast to the standard analogue clock that drives much of American culture. So as we mark the 21^st of December 2012, we can experience the gift of being liberated from time, calendars, and the scheduling of our lives.

The wonderful gift available to us is that we are each invited to reconnect ourselves to life itself.

God, the Creative Source, Life exists in the NOW.

Healing happens in the present.

It is time to become aware of the truth that we, as infinite beings in our heart of hearts, live outside of the constraints of any calendar or clock. Great tension exists in us when we try to schedule God, the Creative Source, Life. Wondrously God doesn’t have a watch.

To say that our lives have changed since moving from the U.S. to Mexico would be an understatement. The following questions have been allies to us as we learn to receive the gifts of life that so richly surround us here.

May these questions serve you as you claim the timeless love you are.

1. What are you called to end?
2. What are you called to celebrate as over?
3. What are you called to walk away from?

And….

4. What are you called to fall in love with beyond reason?

Become a student of what love is beyond anything you’ve ever thought, hoped for or experienced.

That is the possibility we are in now.

Did you know you have core values that run like high-speed software inside you?
Do you know what your core values are and where they came from?
Feeling sick at heart and don’t know why?

Core values become measures by which we understand ourselves in relation to others and the world around us.

We’re in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, ( SMA for short), a place dear to our hearts.

© Photo by David C. MacKenzie

SMA was up and running by the 1600’s. There is a rich mixture of foreigners and Mexicans resulting in a blending of multiple cultures coming together to promote a community where tolerance, kindness, respect and beauty can prevail for all.

We’ve been taking Spanish lessons at The Warren Hardy Spanish School founded in 1990. Warren, a master educator, gave a lecture contrasting the core values between the USA and Mexico. These values are the result of sociologists distilling what drives each culture.

US Core Values                                                 Mexico Core Values
1. Financial Opportunity                                     1. Personal dignity and respect
2. Time and it’s control                                       2. Trust, Family and Friends
3. Personal Freedom                                          3. Free Time

Why not be in charge of your life and health by knowing your core values and living them?

Sometimes we’re running a set of values that aren’t true to our core values. When that happens things get noisy inside and we can get lost in how we want to direct our lives. Life is living us and we can make ourselves physically sick. Each of us has a set of values unique and true to the heart and soul of who we are.

Here are some tips to help you notice your cultural and personal core values:

• Post some notes that say ‘core values’ in places that will get your attention. Notice your personal and country’s values. Values are short and to the point like the list above.
•  Start a conversation about core values. See what you can discover. It will add some richness to your conversations.

When we know our core values and they guide our daily lives, we’re operating from a place of soulful awareness.

Soulful awareness of one another can produce relationships rich with discovery, alive in love, pregnant with possibility.

When unconscious core values are running our lives they create friction that can make us sick at heart and sick in the body.

We’re learning to change our core values to match the song in our hearts.

Want to change yours?

Prayer- what a heavily burdened word this has become.

Many of us carry a deeply present wound activated when the word ‘prayer’ is simply mentioned.

It is time to go beyond this word’s burden and claim the gift of the Mystical Life that prayer contains free of the wound, doctrinal history and family shadow.

We each must claim prayer on our own terms with the voice of our hearts and uncertainty speaking together in harmony into the unspeakable mystery that our lives really are. Read more »

There are many proven strategies that assist people in losing weight.

Have you tried some? We have.

Of course what we eat, when we eat and how much we exercise are critical factors in maintaining healthy weight.  And yet with all the brilliance and billions of dollars spent on weight loss, more often than not, the fat comes back.

What’s the missing ingredient that can assist us in keeping extra weight off our bodies? Read more »

What if making friends with our death gave us even more vitality, joy, love and freedom?

We have seen people fight and struggle with the powerful truth that we are not designed to live permanently in these bodies. When we become ill, whether it is gravely or just a cold, what shows up is the powerful habit of looking away from and fighting the presence of our  evolutionary ally death.  When we let go of the fight and become friends, we create less friction and more ease in our lives. Of course, having a will to live and thrive is a symptom of our love of life itself. Read more »

Do you want to change your habits of seeing the world the same old way?

Do you want to have more energy?

Can’t see a way out?

We invite you to put into slow motion a high speed habit called ‘seeing’ that you might not realize you have power over. Read more »