This morning…the sun came up over my television screen, as it usually does while watching CBS SUNDAY MORNING. Sipping on a cup of coffee, breathing in the headlines of the day, I was directed to my favorite topic…” New and Juicy”. 
Today’s headline…“The Money Edition,” which highlighted many innovative and creative ideas for making money.
Perhaps your next Vacation takes you to Venice and you have 6 people in your family and only $200 or less to spend on an apartment. You want it on the water and it needs to come with a private boat….I have the answer for you. Maybe, it is a tree house you’re looking for with a view the Golden Gate Bridge, and walking distance to Union Square? Have a private plane or Yacht or even Airstream you want to rent out? A new way of sharing…check out, all options at Airbnb.com.
New ideas, success, and whimsy…I love my CBS Sunday Morning!
Love and Light,
Suzen
This is the ultimate bank platform. Call it Karma, or Universal Law, I call it banking with the divine. Every day I try to have a transaction, some quite small, like the prayers over my children or the guidance to care for them. Others a little bigger for “The Mister” who rarely sees me on my knees asking for larger withdrawals of patience and love to welcome him home. My Bank is always there, it never defaults, and adds more interest than I ever expect. My bank speaks to me in a way that is amazingly personal and specific to my needs. Recently, I have been making deposits to the “Bank of the Divine” in the form of funds from teaching my Yoga classes. Some donations went to Sandy relief, some went to homeless people at Christmas, and some bought coffee for a stranger at Starbucks. In my little way I try to give more than I withdrawal, and last week one of my students shared with me a wonderful “pay it forward” story. It is worth reading, it is worth digesting, and hopefully at the end you will be anxious to make a donation to the Universe as well. Here is the story she shared with me after I declined my Sunday fee for teaching and asked each student to do something of their choosing to pay it forward and feel the delight that giving definitely brings!
BTW, Remember how you (Suzen) told us to give $10 to someone who needed it? Well, I was at Memorial middle school last night and a friend found a checkbook. It had a name and address, but no phone number. I used my super sharp sleuth (not sloth) mind to deduct (Sherlock Holmes style) that since the checkbook was found at MMS in the gym…they probably had kids…AND since the address was an apartment complex in the 024… the kids probably went to school at Hunters Creek. I got out my handy-dandy, always present, school directory and found the lady’s name/phone number in it. I texted her and she confirmed it was hers. During all this investigative work (looking for name or clue) I noticed the last entry in her registry was for a $90 late fee for rent. There were also other entries where after rent she had only $30 in her account. It makes me sad knowing someone with three kids struggles to pay rent all the while managing to pay $150 for three yearbooks for her kids so each one would have memories when they grew up. ANYWAY, the other mom with me and I put cash in her checkbook and I took it to school in an envelope. Your $10 was included in our gesture. I think I will buy some Kroger gift cards anonymously and mail them to her throughout the year to hopefully be of help. Thanks Suzen for your kindness…I did my best to pay it forward.
We all benefit when we make our deposits willingly and when we can. Sometimes the needy don’t reveal their needs, and other times just a cup of coffee can set the stage for an amazing pay it forward encounter. Over the last 15 years I have bought hundred’s of coffee for the persons behind me in the Starbucks drive thru line. Always a stranger, not expecting a blessing to come their way. This same week, I had my coffee purchased for me by a stranger. Significant because this was the first time I have ever been on the receiving end. It was the perfect reminder that no matter who you are and where you might be…doing something for someone else goes out into the world and takes on something greater than you ever imagined.
Love and Light,
Suzen
It’s been a while since I have posted. I miss you too! The thoughts have been swirling, I just haven’t been diligent in posting. So much to share and so much still to uncover.
First of all, happy new year and happy 2013. This year brings with it enormous change for the universe and with it, a lightness of being, to all living residents of planet Earth. With these changes, I decided to make a few of my own. Health is always at the top of my new years resolutions but this year I decided, I really needed to “STEP UP MY GAME”! Lots to share and some photos and book recommendations as well. Hopefully while you scour this post you will leave wondering what you too could do to step up your game.
Zen is simply …that state of centeredness which is here and now. -Alan watts
The Zen of doing anything is doing it with a particular concentration of mind, a calmness and simplicity of mind, that brings the experience of enlightenment and, through that experience, happiness. – Chris Prentiss
1. Mindful awareness: Challenge your self to be fully aware to what you say and do.
2. Get physical for at least 2 hours a day.
3. Only put into your body whole and healthy items. This includes french fries if they are homemade!
4. Read more.
MY READING FAVORITES THIS YEAR:
Proof of Heaven
Life of Pi
Wild
A walk across America
The book of Awakening
Zen and the Art of Happiness
The Buddha walks into a Bar
5. Go vegetarian: I have committed to a no meat diet for 2013
6. Give up something for at least 40 days, just to see if you can really be stronger without it. Give up Gluten, or wine, or bread, or sarcasm.
7. Play games: many of you know I love a good fun family game that gets everybody involved regardless of their card counting ability or age. Making it about the connection instead of the WIN.
Telestrations ended up being a great game this year.
Tell me a story created magical imagery in both the old and the young.
8. Take a risk: Do something that scares you.
9. Step back and observe your thoughts. Realize that everything that happens, if you allow it, will bring you in alignment with the divine.
10. Let something go! Whether it be a pain, anger, a jealousy, fat, physical adversity, sadness, unworthiness, inferiority, or dissatisfaction to anything…Let it go. ” Every event that befalls me is absolutely the best possible event that could occur.”
Recently, I had a challenging discussion with “the Mister”. He does not like change and he rather delights in making fun or ridiculing my desire for change. Most of all he would rather never change. While having our discussion, I realized, that his responses were simply a request for love. He wasn’t angry about the request for change, he was angry that I was challenging the love I laid at his heart. It’s a deep discomfort and vulnerability that every one is guilty of. So regardless of whether you are the one asking, or you are the one receiving perhaps step back a minute and decide the intension of the request and begin it with the words “COULD WE COMPROMISE”…on such and such a need? Then see what comes of it. Sometimes the ask, comes from left field and in a way bombards the receiver. Best to say, I really need this___, now how might we make it happen together.
Get healthy, think healthy, and be well!
Love and Light,
Suzen
ENJOY!
The message of God is like a spring of water: it rises and falls, and makes its way by itself.
Commentary by Hazrat Inayat Khan: The key to the secret of the messenger is given in the Bible, but very few will ponder upon it and reason it out for themselves. The key is in the words, ‘I am Alpha and Omega’, ‘I am the first and the last.’ Can that mean, ‘I came only for a time, and then I was called Jesus, and only then did I give a message: I spoke neither before nor after that time’? Alpha and Omega means First and Last; always, continually present; never absent from the beginning of creation to the end. … God is seen in the one who glorifies Him. But if our hearts are closed, even if we wait for a thousand years for the messenger to show himself, we shall never find him. … the message is like a spring of water: it rises and falls and makes its way by itself, so that no one can make an imitation of it. If the message is true, it will always make its way to the end of the world. It is always so with the message of God.
But those who wait, may wait. It is their destiny to wait, and one cannot help them. They waited while Jesus Christ came and went, and they still wait and will wait for ever. And yet he has always come; to the individual, to the multitude, to the nation, to the race. He came, and spoke to the whole world; but did he come with drums and trumpets? No, he came in the humblest guise, in the most unassuming manner; as our brother, our servant, our friend, our equal. Man, because of his devotion, has called him Lord; but he said, ‘Call me not good. I am like unto you.’ It is not his absence that keeps man in ignorance; it is man’s own closed eyes. The Master has always been present, but man knew him not.
http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IX/IX_29.htm~~~ The message of God is like a spring of water: it rises and falls, and makes its way by itself.
The Peace Prayer of Saint Francis
“O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is discord, harmony.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sorrow, joy.
Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.”
Love and Light,
Suzen
The Symbol(Yin-Yang) represents the ancient Chinese understanding of how things work. The outer circle represents “everything,” while the black and white shapes within the circle represent the interaction of two energies, called “yin” (black) and “yang” (white), which cause everything to happen.
They are not completely black or white, just as things in life are not completely black or white, and they cannot exist without each other. While “yin” would be dark, passive, downward, cold, contracting, and weak, “yang” would be bright, active, upward, hot, expanding, and strong. The shape of the yin and yang sections of the symbol, actually gives you a sense of the continual movement of these two energies, yin to yang and yang to yin, causing everything to happen: just as things expand and contract, and temperature changes from hot to cold.
I like to play solitaire to keep my mind busy when moments like long waits in the car occur. It helps me to focus, to get out of the mundane and see a different perspective. When I don’t finish a game, my computer asks me if I would like to select a new game or replay this game? On occasion, I choose the “replay this game option”. One might think it would be “Boring” to replay a game over but often times I find I missed just one easy step, or card, in the process that could have made my deck so much easier. In fact I am usually stunned when I see it and wonder “How could I have not seen this one card, the first time”?
It would be a wonderful opportunity to have the chance to replay in life. Telling our minds and bodies to check in on the second chance. To have all focus and concentration as well as saturation to observe everything we need out of a moment.
I am teaching Yoga this morning and this shall be my lesson for my students…”In this pose…What can you soften, resist resisting, or simply let go of in your mind, in your body, in your soul…while still allowing your balance?”
In life we often bring some expectation, of winning, of comfort, of expected result, of other actions, into another action.
STOP…hit replay…and open your eyes to a game winning hand or perhaps… just the card you missed the first time.
It will be rewarding…It could be game changing…It could be the best day of your life!
ALLOW THE NATURAL BALANCE AND ALIGNMENT TO OCCUR! You already have it, it already knows where it is…just get out of its way.
LOVE AND LIGHT,
S-ZEN
I am often awed by whimsy, balloons, and sparkles. I am a dreamer, I am an optimist, and forever hope that my light continues to shine on a gloomy day. Recently, the Mister and I, had a date planned, rather, “I” had a date planned. The Mister, though intelligent, strong, kind, and less distracted by bright shiny objects, is not a romantic. He enjoys whatever I throw his way but would rather not be the romantic glue that keeps us together.
Being married and sharing intimate space definitely has its challenges. We somehow scrape off all the allure and glamour that once drew us together, and reveal ugliness and disrespect oozing in its festering place. The Mister and I spend many days, nights and sometimes weeks away from each other. He jumping from city to city, or hotel lobby while I tend to details of scraping dishes and reviewing homework requirements. There isn’t much “SPARKLE” in our day-to-day lives, and often flirtation gets pushed aside by tasks or deadlines.
I have three rules about my marriage and how to keep it going and they all begin with “I”.
1. I wear something that makes me feel special everyday…This includes sometimes only perfume or other times lipstick. On my best days or nights it includes a REALLY GREAT PAIR OF HEELS, A PRETTY DRESS, SOME AMAZING LINGERIE accented with something really dazzling.
2. I make time for date nights…even if I am the one who plans them, gets ready for them, calls the babysitter and drives her home. Date nights are PART OF THE RECIPE!
3. I do whatever I have to do to leave the house when given the chance. I find myself…on my walks with my dog, or at the mall looking at the latest styles, or having a cup of coffee at the cafe, or working out, or doing Yoga or going on a nice hike with God. I find the bits and pieces of myself that even I have forgotten about. We often become what people know of us or see in us rather than what we were or yet still are. Don’t become your work! Working from home is just as consuming as a fortune 500 company. Create some space to find intrigue, so that you can be interesting and exciting to yourself and those you love. The adventure of life is always in front of you. Have more to talk about than what is going on in everyone else’s life. Be the starlet in your own movie!
I woke up Friday morning rather dreading the date night I had planned. I wanted to reconnect but feared it would be hum drum and I would hear more about the office than complimenting words about my lipstick or shoes. That he would forget to ask me about my day, my life, my passions. After dropping the kids off at school, I sat on my floor looking for inspiration. “I love my husband, and he deserves to feel my love”. He reflects back to me what I put out and my energy was low; I have to be more than…”TIRED”…I didn’t want to allow hum drum. I wanted to be interesting, I wanted to feel the way I felt when he use to look at me, or stop him cold in his Texas boot swagger. I asked myself, what did I do before when anticipation guided my thoughts? How do I get past the familiarity of my roommate and delve deeper into expressing my sincere appreciation while creating opportunity for him do the same?
We all need some infusion. Love needs infusion, marriage is a commitment of more than honesty and cohabitation. We need love notes and kisses on the forehead, hand holding and a snuggle while watching a movie. We need energy exhausted to reveal that we are more important than the latest P&L. I decided to send the Mister on a scavenger hunt for…me. Hoping perhaps for just a few moments we might again feel the anticipation of our lips pressing against each other and hearts leaping in the same direction.
We did,…he did,…and it was lovely and ADVENTUROUS.
Dating...it’s the best kept secret about marriage…and the slipper always fits! 
LOVE AND LIGHT,
Suzen
This is what I saw last night…It has been there since Sunday…I noticed it then, but I really saw it last night.
This weekend I saw this…and experienced it, breathed it, witnessed its beauty, I camped with it and heard the world surrounding me.
These are the three people that bring me delight purely by their existence.
This week…
- I got to smell the pine trees
- I got to fold the perfect t-shirt
- I saw ” For the love of the game” while I unloaded the dishwasher
- I finished my coffee
- I walked my dog and my legs did not hurt
- I was kissed and gave kisses
- I slept with toes pressed into my side
- I woke up before the sun did
- I ate crab cakes that made me want to have more
The amazing thing is people have to find out that they are dying to see and appreciate these moments. Life gets better when you notice it. Love is better when you feel it. Take chances and try new things, live new places, travel to places that you can’t spell. It is heaven on Earth! Have faith that it will all work out in the end.
Love and Light,
Suzen
I am a student of life. One of the most lasting lessons of my life, I experienced through the death of my father. I was 11 years old. I was able, even then, to look beyond the mortal and explore the lesson? We have choices when faced with the surprise of grief or loss; self-serving identity to the loss or longing, or the acceptance that the soul served its purpose. My heart was blessed through my father’s death and somehow I was gifted the perspective of the later, I was able to see the gift in his passing which helps me now to celebrate LIFE! The revelation that remained, allowed me to understand that lessons are taught, both through life and death, if you are willing to see it. So many times I have counseled children placed in the same situation as I and have shared my experiences with them. I believe I was given life to share and serve, that experiencing death early on has taught me. Being alive is precious, awake today with gratitude for what has unfolded and being able to see the gifts in the simple and the complex. Live it…be it…experience it and be open to it all.
Recently, I was sitting with my favorite pooch, Lilly. We were watching a television show about a dog revealing to its owner “that he/she” was working too hard. The dog had a history of being frantic and over-active. One particular day, this dog was running crazy around the residence, the owner stepped away to answer the phone, at the same moment…entering an email, and then answering the door. In the 2 minutes of crazed activity, the dog was found choked on a ball. The dog died immediately, the owner survived, seeing the lesson revealed in that very moment. The pet had sacrificed itself, to reveal to the “OWNER” her own busy and frantic pursuit, or at least that is how she saw it. The loss was a lesson, if willing to see it.
Lilly and I sat there staring into each others souls. The look of a pet into your soul is like no other. I believe they really are our guardians, our guides, our muses, our gate keepers, our protectors. Experiencing this together, I was honored to have shared this television show while “resting”. The moment of exchanged looks, the deepness that I hope you can relate to, it was as if she were saying to me…”see mom, I would do that for you”. I thanked her for the blessing she has been to me and my family. It was as if the thoughts of this blog, while watching the show, hearing how this dog changed this woman’s life, was all happening with purpose through our deep exchange.
As a married couple, we have had three dogs. We got one as a Christmas gift for our son whose favorite number was five. When asked if he wanted cookies?…he would say “yes, momma…five.” If you said its time to take a bath…he would say “just five minutes okay, momma?” We named the dog Five. Then, just 18 months later, a german shepherd puppy showed up on our doorstep on Christmas eve. We named her Chrissy. Seven years ago, I set out to find another dog, the right time had come to call another soul forward or welcome a new guardian in our life. She is our beloved Lilly. Our dear labrador Five, taught my son unconditional love when he was unsure of himself. Five taught the Mister that a dog means much more than four legs and fur. Upon his passing, I witnessed my husband cry so deeply, the day he sat at our Five’s side. Their exchange was legendary, the strong man telling the dog “he had done his job”…”he was a good dog” and we all were very thankful. Today, Chrissy resides with my Mother in the mountains that are cool to a shepherds coat. The two of them have had an incredible bond over the last 11 years and it was in my heart that our Chrissy would serve a greater purpose. It took 11 years before she was ready to receive the love and joy the furry ball of a shepherd gives her “daily” now. The stories I hear about their walks and talks confirm to me that the dog picks the owner… never the owner picking the dog.
I know the case of pre-selection can be made in a variety of animals, both domestic and wild, it is really a matter of whether you are paying attention. We are connected, to the birds that wake us in the morning, the deer who eat our bushes, the trout swimming to get away from our hook, the ant that crawls across a yoga mat. Welcome them, thank them, and be open to the lesson that they are here to show you. It is within life and death that our truths are revealed, honor ALL the souls you encounter no matter what the shell!
LOVE and LIGHT,
Suzen
I really could have had a lot of fun with this title, I was going to name it HOWDY HOUSTON…but decided I liked the other a bit better.
My first introduction to Houston or any city in Texas was via the movie, URBAN COWBOY. Like many young teenage girls, I wanted a suede leather vest and some pretty cowgirl boots and a “Slow dancing”, “Two Steppin”, “Cowboy” to call my own. It would be years later that my “Birkenstocks” and “OP” shorts would actually find their way out west where the horses are horses and the men are Bulls, or something like that!
I immediately fell in love with Texas and often found myself saying…”I wasn’t born here, but I got here as fast as I could”! This year will be my 21st year as a Texan, not consecutively. This summer, I was brought on the adventure of relocating to Houston from the gorgeous rolling hills of Georgia. Being honest, I was not excited. Let’s face it, its closest ocean is the “chocolate bay” of Galveston, it takes over 14 hours to go east to west and 18 hours to go north to south…edge to edge, in the same state. It’s hot and humid and really flat. I knew no one in Houston and no real direct references or referrals. The Mister was excited and the happiest I had seen him in a job related environment. It was important for me to settle in with enthusiasm or at least grace.
My daily meditations beginning in February were three specific prayers: DEAR LORD…
- May my children be placed exactly where they will best serve you and the soul they were given.
- May we find a house that does not speak of stature or success, but elicit happiness and fun revealing the best in all of the members of my family.
- May you send me amazing women friends, that live for purpose of both intelligence and lust for life.
I knew I had to be patient, and I knew I had to stay focused for the “amazing” to happen. Here is what I know for sure…IF YOU ARE WILLING FOR THE UNIVERSE TO UNFOLD THE DIVINE PURPOSE OF YOUR DESTINY, AMAZING THINGS WILL HAPPEN! We rush things and force things way too often in life. If we spent the same amount of time believing in our dreams as we do worrying about what we cannot control, our lives would be truly divine. Serendipity happens every day, we just aren’t paying attention.
My children are all in the most amazing school environments and I am so happy to hear their stories each day upon pick up. Our house is being built and the finding of the lot, builder and architect were quite simply a miracle. Today, I met three really amazing women that when we spoke it was as if we had known each other from previous lives. One grew up with a close friend of mine, another so smart and kind who actually was willing to get a group of women together on my behalf after hearing I was new to the area. The third, a woman who has experienced similar adventures and kindred philosophies on mothering and life. All in all I was a giggling school girl when I called THE MISTER to share my almost 4 hour gab fest with enthusiasm and appreciation for these woman that had been handed to me on a FUN PLATTER!
As all my readers know…”I love me my girlfriends”! You all are my sunshine and calm and my laughter that bellows sometimes for hours and days! Without girl friends nothing makes sense. I am lucky to have so many experiences and blessed to call so many of you “friend”.
So in parting, I will remind you, that whatever your challenge today…know that there is the perfect answer waiting for you if you will be patient enough and open yourself and wait for what will emphatically come! Remember to ask for it then wait for the door of divine purpose to open. Call a girlfriend and sip on a glass of wine in the meantime until all your wishes come true!
LOVE and LIGHT,
Suzen
FUNNY FRIDAY
Energy is :
A system can transfer energy to another system by simply transferring matter to it (since matter is equivalent to energy, in accordance with its mass). However, when energy is transferred by means other than matter-transfer, the transfer produces changes in the second system, as a result of work done on it. This work manifests itself as the effect of force(s) applied through distances within the target system. For example, a system can emit energy to another by transferring (radiating) electromagnetic energy, but this creates forces upon the particles that absorb the radiation. Similarly, a system may transfer energy to another by physically impacting it, but in that case the energy of motion in an object, called kinetic energy, results in forces acting over distances (new energy) to appear in another object that is struck. Transfer of thermal energy by heat occurs by both of these mechanisms: heat can be transferred by electromagnetic radiation, or by physical contact in which direct particle-particle impacts transfer kinetic energy.
As a student and teacher of energy I often place myself in vulnerable situations trying to field the energy in the room before teaching a class. Like any other animal, I sense for fear, anger, warmth, and slowly approach beings until I get a proper reading. As defined to me there are only two kinds of human energy. People who take energy and people who deposit energy. I have been the body of energy that many have fed off of, which is why I have to recharge that energy much like a cell phone. Though I voluntarily put myself out there to share my energy, I have to be responsible to myself first and be aware of my levels.
This week energy has been bouncing off our walls at home. Like a basketball net, I have been trying to capture it and put it in storage for later use. Most of the energy was good, through laughter, fun times, excitement for the first days of school. Some energy was bad, T. V., reports about the economy, business meetings, stress, pressure, fatigue. I found myself having highs and lows within minutes of coming in contact with someone. Feeling robbed of good energy, I tried to huddle or escape the preying individual who was depleting me before I could shield myself and reserve my tank. Sometimes the protection did not work. I also was blessed to exchange amazing energy. During these moments, I found myself talking faster, talking louder, almost uncontainable energy. Understanding and reading energy will hopefully be the normal 6th sense, but for now it is up to you to train your awareness.
Energy transfer is real. Being mindful of the energy you have and the awareness of how or what you transfer is a great responsibility. When I teach, I meditate always before I enter a room. One can take that a step further by meditating before you enter any room. Setting an intention for your energy to be used for a higher purpose of light and love has its rewards for anything you might come in contact with. Removing any negative energy or stresses that one might still be carrying from a previous exchange before entering a room is an idea you can also consider. Pausing even as you move through your day between different demands and finding time to check in with your energy tank or emissions could help all you come into contact with. Starting your day ramping that energy high into multiple digits secures the bank needed for a successful day. Fill your tank every day with purpose, intention and responsibility. Being thoughtful of what you bring into a room or into a situation of unsuspecting beings will ultimately lead you to a happier exchange. Take the time out needed to move from one situation to another. Be aware of your own energy, do things that build energy and stay away from things that are depleting.
Love and Light,
Suzen