Author: Susan Schulte

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Following God’s Plan and Destiny for Us 

“We’re facing dragons too.  Fire-breathing griffins of the soul, whom we must outfight and outwit to reach our self-in-potential and to release the maiden who is God’s plan and destiny for ourselves and the answer to why we were put on this planet.”

This quote by author Steven Pressfield appears in his book The War of Art.  In my posts I often emphasize the importance of endeavoring to become the person we were created to be; in Jungian terminology, to work toward individuation.  Pressfield’s analogy comparing this striving to that of a knight facing dangers is yet another way of emphasizing the nature of this inner work.  And just as knights of old were courageous, used their wits, and persevered in order to rescue the maiden, we need to have those qualities in order to live a meaningful and purposeful life, which is what the maiden symbolizes.

Pressfield’s use of the words “our self-in-potential” is fitting, for embracing the challenge of trying to become the persons we were created to be is a continuous, life-long process.  Our potential is that which we are able to do because of the abilities and talents we have been given.  We discover more about ourselves along the way—our courage and at times our lack of courage; mistakes we make but also how we are able to learn from our mistakes; and feeling peaceful when we are following our path but also forgiving ourselves for the times we haven’t, and trying again.

Pressfield states his belief that God has a plan and destiny for each of us.  Each of us is a unique creation who was given the gift of life, a gift we should value every day.

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Faith

“To hear with my heart.  To see with my soul.  To be guided by a hand I cannot hold.  To trust in a way that I cannot see.  That’s what faith must be.”

These words are from Michael Card’s song entitled “That’s What Faith Must Be.”  Mr. Card is a Christian singer-songwriter, musician, author, and radio host, and he wrote this song early in his musical ministry.  I appreciate the simple and yet profound way he describes faith.

Each of us has a heart and a soul given to us by our Creator.  For me, hearing with our hearts is listening to our inner voice, trying to discern its guidance for each of us as unique individuals with unique callings.  And seeing with our souls is our noticing and being thankful for that guidance as it comes to us through our intuition, dreams, and synchronicities.  And also through people in our lives and our interactions with them; our surroundings, including the beauties of nature; and the ways we choose to spend time.

Faith involves living according to truths that cannot be readily proved or concretely set forth.  It is trusting in our inner guidance and trying to follow that guidance without knowing where it will lead us; thus, trusting in a way we cannot see.  There are times when the choices we make as we try to live by faith are not understood or accepted by other people, including people we are close to.  Despite the discomfort or sadness this may cause, we continue on because we know in our heart and in our soul it is how we should live.

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Loved Ones Are Always with Us

Yesterday I was sitting in a chair facing a large window and looking outside while talking to a friend on the phone.  The bright red of a cardinal caught my eye as it flew and then perched on the branch of a nearby tree.  About two seconds later, a female cardinal arrived and alighted on a branch a few inches from the male cardinal.  Although it is my understanding that cardinals live year round in the area where I live, I rarely see them, which made this special.  It was special too that they stayed in the tree for several minutes so I could enjoy watching them.

I appreciate life’s small surprises, and this was one.  When birds catch my eye, in addition to the enjoyment of seeing them, I also think of the symbolism of birds in dreams:  they symbolize the soul.  When we are reminded of our soul, we are reminded that we were created by the Creator, and for that reason each of us matters and we are loved.  And also that we need to try to discern the purposes for which we were created by listening to our inner voice and endeavoring to live according to its guidance.

Seeing the cardinals and noticing how they remained several minutes before flying away made me curious to learn the symbolism of cardinals in particular.  By doing some research, I learned that cardinals are believed to be representatives of loved ones who have passed away, and that their presence shows us that they are always with us.  Learning this touched my heart, because my mother passed away about a month ago.  I also had the thought that perhaps the other cardinal represented my father, who passed away 14 years ago, stopping by to show me he is with me too.

Loved ones are also with us in our memories.  I’m thankful for memories I have of times with my parents and with other people I have known who have completed their earthly journeys.

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A Time for Every Matter under Heaven

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:  a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”  Ecclesiastics 3:1-4.

These words in the Old Testament reflect the various aspects of life.  Each of our lives is made up of many kinds of experiences and the emotions we feel as we live those experiences.  Recently a good friend of mine became a grandmother and sent me photos of her beautiful infant granddaughter.  A time to be born.  And a time of joy.  A month ago my mother, who was blessed with a long life, completed her earthly journey.  A time to die.  And a time for those of us who knew and loved her to feel the sadness of missing her but also to be thankful that we were able to have her in our lives for as long as we did.

There are times when we have many tasks to complete and deadlines to meet, and we feel a lot of pressure.  And when we’ve completed those tasks, we welcome being less busy and hopefully we are able to enjoy the feeling of satisfaction of a job well done.  There are times when we are ill and it is essential to slow down and take care of ourselves in order to be well again.  And there are times when we are healthy and energetic and lighthearted.

Life brings joys and sorrows.  There are times of activity and there are times of quiet contemplation.  Times to enjoy being with others and times when being alone is what we need.

Our life journey involves all of these facets.  In order to live a more meaningful life, it’s important that we live life fully by embracing each of them.

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Putting Love into What We Do

“I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, God will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’  Rather God will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did?’”

These words of Mother Teresa help us remember that when done with love, each action we do matters.  It can be overwhelming and discouraging to think about the many aspects of life where help is needed to right wrongs, to assist people in need, and to work toward a more just world.  We must counteract the tendency toward discouragement by remembering that actions we do with genuine concern and caring help not only at the time we’re doing them, but often have a ripple effect.  Both directly, as when a person who receives assistance then chooses to help others, and also in less direct ways.  It’s as if the spirit of the act of kindness makes its way to and through others.

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Being Thankful 

“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.”  This quote is by Meister Eckhart, a German theologian, philosopher, and mystic who lived from 1260 to 1328.

I recently watched a webinar, the topic of which was taking care of oneself during stressful times.  There were many helpful and time-tested suggestions, including eating plant-based foods, making time for physical activity, and doing breathing techniques.  These and a number of other ideas were presented, and the basis for their effectiveness was discussed as well.  Because I have an interest in these topics both for my own well-being and to have knowledge about them in my work as a crisis line counselor, I was familiar with many of the recommendations.  However, one of the ways of taking care of ourselves that had not been presented in other such presentations is to be thankful.

And yet it makes perfect sense.  Being thankful recognizes that that for which we are thankful has been given to us.  Having gratitude goes hand in hand with the quality of being humble.  When we are thankful for the people in our lives who love us, we acknowledge that we did not have control of the family we were born into or that we would meet our spouse, partner, or friends who love us.  When we are thankful for our health, we acknowledge that we were born with certain genes and have the good fortune of having nutritious food available to us.  When we are thankful for a job that we feel good about, we recognize that we weren’t in control of that job opening occurring when it did or whether we would be invited to be interviewed and then selected for it.  When I give these examples, I don’t mean to not acknowledge the effort a person puts into maintaining health, treating others in a loving way, or being a capable employee—those efforts matter very much—but it’s important to see how things came together over which we did not have control and therefore for which we should be grateful.

The way that being thankful helps us during stressful times is that by focusing on the blessings we have, we are not thinking about those material possessions or certain experiences we wish we could have.  Thinking about what we want to have but do not adds to anxiety.  Noticing what we do have and being grateful for it decreases anxiety.

I encourage you to follow what Meister Eckhart said and say prayers of thanksgiving, remembering that all for which we are thankful has been given to us by our Creator.

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A Reassuring Dream

I recently had a dream that I would like to share with you.  Because dreams are so personal, I’m sometimes hesitant to tell them to others.  My thoughts about what the dream might be expressing are also personal.  And yet, the main purpose of my blog is to show the many ways that hope is present in our lives.  People becoming aware that dreams are meaningful is a source of hope.  So here is my dream:

I’m outside looking at the space along the house owned by friends of mine.  It used to have landscape rocks with weeds growing through them.  But now the whole area has healthy green grass growing there.  My friends had done the work of removing the weeds and rocks and then planting the grass seed, resulting in a pretty space both beside the house and continuing into the back yard, which in the dream is larger than it is in physical reality.  I’m going to tell my friends how impressed I am with what they’ve done. 

This is a reassuring dream.  The imagery of the green grass is positive in that it portrays something pretty to see, especially in contrast to how the area looked before.  The grass also is healthy vegetation that adds oxygen to the air and provides food for some insects and animals, thus being a life-giving image.  It seems to me that the fact that the yard in the dream is larger than the yard is in physical reality adds emphasis to these positive images.

Another affirmative aspect of this dream is that I have positive associations to the woman and the man who have done the work to significantly improve their yard.  According to Jungian dream theory, when people who we know appear in our dreams, it is helpful to identify our associations to those people.  I care about and think highly of the two people and therefore recognize their images as representing the positive inner feminine and positive inner masculine of myself.

This dream also suggests that time and effort were required of the couple to transform their yard.  I take this as a message that it’s important that I try my best to do what I’m meant to do, to be watchful of the part of me that sometimes is lazy or uncaring.  And to try my best to follow the guidance I discern to be from my inner voice through dream work, synchronicities, and intuitive promptings.

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Having New Eyes  

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”  These words by Marcel Proust, a French novelist and essayist, can apply to many aspects of life.  What they bring to mind for me are the discoveries I made about dreams when I started to look at them in a new way.

About 30 years ago some things occurred that led to my decision to seek the assistance of a therapist, and I began meeting with a Jungian psychotherapist.  It was in our work together that I first became aware of the idea that dreams are meaningful and serve a vital purpose.  As is the case with many people, I had previously thought that dreaming was just something that happened sometimes when we are sleeping.  At times I would notice a dream if, for example, people I knew were in the dream or if it depicted a strange story.  But my noticing a dream never led to my being curious about whether there was a reason for my having had that dream.  I also knew that people sometimes had disturbing dreams and nightmares, and I felt fortunate that I didn’t.  But I still thought of dreams as a type of cognitive occurrence that happened randomly and for no particular reason.

It turns out I was totally wrong in these assumptions and that the opposite is true.  Rather than being random, the dreams we have are personal to each one of us.  According to Jungian theory, when we remember dreams we are being given information from our unconscious.  When we record our dreams and try to learn from them, we’re taking steps toward integrating aspects of our unconscious which helps us to become more conscious and whole persons.  It didn’t take long after I started writing down my dreams and learning about what images in a dream might mean that I began to see how personal they were to what was happening in my life.  I learned about how the images of people we know in physical reality who appear in our dreams can symbolize certain characteristics about ourselves, which helps us to understand ourselves better.  I also learned how the various objects and creatures that appear in dreams are symbolic of certain qualities and/or have archetypal meanings, which again add to our having more integrated personalities.

Through their stories, images, and symbols, dreams give us information that leads us toward becoming the persons we were created to be.  They help us to discern what is occurring in our inner lives which in turn helps us to make the right decisions in our outer lives.

I, along with many other people who have been fortunate enough to learn about the significance of dreams and who embrace doing dream work, view dreams with “new eyes.”  The dreams were there all the time.  It was by seeing them in a new way that we discovered them as a source of wisdom and meaning.

 

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Peace from Within

“Each one has to find peace from within.  And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.”  When I read this quotation by Mahatma Gandhi, I thought about how inner peace, like faith, is a gift from the Creator.  Although it is a gift, we need to honor it by preparing for and nurturing this gift.  We do that by trying to hear and follow the guidance of our inner voice.

Feeling peaceful isn’t the same as feeling happy.  People can have a sense of inner peace during difficult and sad times as well as during the more serene times.  I believe that is what Gandhi meant when he said real peace is not affected by outside circumstances.  True peace is part of our inner reality no matter what is happening in outer reality.  Growing in consciousness adds to peacefulness.  Jungian psychotherapists write about how clients they’ve assisted and they themselves have found that endeavoring to become a more conscious person has resulted in more serenity within.

When I read Gandhi’s quote, I also thought about this verse from the New Testament where Jesus says:  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid” (John 14:27).  Gandhi’s statement that real peace is not affected “by outside circumstances” is similar to Jesus saying the peace of which he speaks is not “as the world gives.”  They both refer to peace having an inner source.  Sometimes we try to convince ourselves that if only a person we know would change or we had a different job or something from the past hadn’t happened, and so on, we would then have what we need to feel more peaceful.  When we have such thoughts, we need to remind ourselves that true peace does not result from such outer happenings.

My prayer is that all of us will receive, cherish, and nurture the gift of peace.

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An Undivided Heart 

Twila Paris is a singer, songwriter, and author who has written and recorded many songs based on Christian teachings.  She is creative and talented, and I enjoy listening to the messages of her songs.

One of my favorites is entitled “Undivided Heart” and includes these lyrics:  “Give me an undivided heart; make a new spirit in me.”  For me, having an undivided heart means having the correct spiritual focus, which is possible by being able to discern the right actions to do and words to say in order to be on our spiritual path, and then choosing to do those actions and speak those words.

Because none of us is perfect, we’re not always able to make the correct discernment.  Thus, the need to pray for help from our Creator, just as the words of the song do.  We are often pulled in different directions by family and friends, by the requirements of our work, by societal pressure, and by our ego desires.  For most of us, there are many options from which to choose that affect the decisions we make, and there are many things that can distract us from following our path.

For all of these reasons, it’s essential to try to listen to our inner voice for guidance.  Each time we make this effort, we come closer to having the undivided heart and the new spirit of which Twila Paris sings.