Archive for February, 2009

Apples & Oranges

Seeds XI, 9

Seed: Apples and Oranges

Did you know that in the Genesis story of Adam, Eve and the Serpent, the kind of fruit is never named? It has traditionally become an apple. Why is that? Because apples are indivisible as themselves. Perfect fruit to symbolize the metaphysical “division” of humankind from its Creator. Even more perfect because Eve held in her hand the solution to the segmentation—wholeness.

Spencer Beebe, president of Ecotrust in Portland, writing in Spirituality & Health May/June 2008 says, “We are an “orange” society (segmented); we need to be an “apple” society (whole again.)”

Oranges and apples, apples and oranges, are images used primarily to illustrate how things don’t go together. How perfect that Mr. Beebe harnesses them to explain how societies are interacting at the moment.

I’d like to take this image to a more microcosmic level than he did. We are orange individuals seeking to become apples again. Segmentation within is rampant, and we, made in the image and likeness of the Original Wholeness, naturally seek wholeness.

Have an apple!

Be joy,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at susan@susancorso.com.

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com

and my blogs Seeds for Sanctuary, God’s Dictionary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

That Virtue of Virtues: Patience

 

My dear videographer friend called me last night to say that he’d completed a first draft of the EPK (electronic press kit) we’d dreamed up last summer. I finished my exercises and eagerly rebooted my computer to see what he’d created, and it’s marvelous!

 

Bless his heart, he had been consistently giving himself a hard time about being “seven months late.” And, admittedly, he had taken that amount of time to get it done, but . . . I didn’t consider it late. I considered it right on time.

 

It got me to thinking about patience, as in, you know, patience is a virtue.

 

I remember in seminary our prayer professor told us never, but never, to pray for patience because we’d be given opportunities to practice it. Do you consider yourself a patient person? I don’t know many who do.

 

So why was it so easy for me to stay patient with my friend?

 

Well, first off, he’d agreed to do the project because of his belief in my work, and as an opportunity to practice his budding video skills. The fee was zero in terms of dollars, and yet, one can’t really get anything for free in this life. Either things cost or they contribute.

 

I asked myself what purpose would have been served if I’d gotten impatient. I’d have made him feel ever worse than he already did. I’d be suffering from the anger that’s often under impatience. It would have been a lose/lose situation. But even that isn’t why I was able to remain patient.

Why is because I had my priorities clear.

 

Did I want the EPK? Sure.

Did I need the EPK? At some point, probably. My press agent will surely use it.

Did I value my friendship with this precious man over any EPK ever? You bet.

 

And that’s why it was easy to remain patient. Loving my friend and my friend loving me won out over artificial timelines my friend and I had chosen.

 

The next time you’re feeling impatient, stop. Ask yourself a question: what is most important here?

 

My friend, Steve Lishansky, an amazing strategic alignment wizard, calls it WIMI.

 

What is most important? WIMI?

 

When you give yourself the gift of a pause to ask WIMI, I’m willing to bet that nine out of ten times, your impatience disappears.

 

I also know that had I said to my friend, “Oprah’s team is waiting for it,” he’d have had it done ASAP.

 

WIMI, dear one? And kiss your impatience a sweet, permanent good-bye.

 

 

 

 

Afformations: Asking the Right Questions

 

 

 

 

As a rule, I do not review books that I haven’t completed, but this post just goes to show you that rules are meant to be broken. This week Noah St. John answered a lifelong question for me. Why don’t affirmations work all the time?
 

If you live a life of spiritual practice, you’ll be familiar with affirmations. My definition is: a positive statement that produces a desired result. Affirmations are present-tense statements. I am wise. I am rich. I am married to my right and perfect partner. I am losing weight.

 

The classic one is Emile Coue’s Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better. I’ve used affirmations for years and they don’t always work.

 

Why? Enter Noah St. John, author of The Secret Code of Success. Dear Noah, bless him, has turned affirmations and their practice on its head.

 

Affirmations don’t always work because the mind is ninety percent unconscious. The conscious mind decides which statements we want to be true of ourselves, and in repeating those statements, the subconscious calls us a liar. Simply put, we don’t believe the statements, ergo, they aren’t true. Further, because we don’t believe, they can’t manifest.

 

The age-old response by spiritual practitioners has been to encourage the affirmer to believe more. Easy to say; not always so easy to do. Truth is, not one of us has any real idea of what lurks in our subconscious minds!

 

Noah St. John, however, has discovered a method that flushes out the subconscious mind. It’s plain. It’s simple. It’s elegant. Don’t do statements, he says.

 

Do questions.

 

Take what you want, say, I want to lose weight.

Afform: Why is it so easy for me to lose weight?

Another: I am rich.

Afform: Why do I always live in financial surplus?

Another: I am married to my right and perfect partner.

Afform: Why is my marriage to my right and perfect partner so joyous?

 

The idea behind affirmations is to make firm what we want in our lives.

 

The brilliant idea behind St. John’s afformations is to make form what we want in our lives.

 

Big difference!

 

His premise is delightful. The human mind is like Google. It is designed to answer questions. In fact, lots of us have had the experience of trying to find or remember something before bed, and awakening in the morning with the answer. That’s the googleness of the human brain. It’s made for questions!

 

Better still, St. John says we don’t even have to answer our Afformation questions. What we get to do instead is, like Rainer Maria Rilke, live the questions, or, as he says, give ourselves to the questions, and let our brains do the work.

 

The effect of his remarkable tool is that we end up focusing on what we want rather than what we don’t want. And that’s the most powerful tool in creation!

 

I’ve thought for a long time that asking the right questions is the key to a life of fulfillment. The work of Noah St. John is a quantum leap toward the art of spiritual living.