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Reflection: Peace in a time of Tragedy

10/2/2017

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Peace to the hearts of all who grieve.  

Blessings ♡   Love lifts us from pain.  Consciousness helps us make sense of it all.

Las Vegas has seen an  horrific tragedy today.  And, isn't it true that although there is definitely beauty, love and kindness - there is trauma and tragedy all over the world much of the time!  Our minds have a difficult time grasping what has happened today.  We pray for healing and for peace at this time.  

I believe that as we search for answers we might benefit from looking at what this world and our journey through life's happenings is about - what our life is to be about and what trauma has to do with our lives.  Is this day's tragedy, is life around us showing/telling us about who we are inside and asking us to stop, look and listen to correct our course?  Is life's journey about the situations we witness, about the "others" and what they do, or is it about giving us messages about who we are, the way we live (collectively as well as individually), what we do?   

This world is an outward manifestation of an inward condition.  This illusion we call life is showing us much pain, suffering, misery, fear, anger, trauma and disconnect as we fend for: money, prestige,  gadgets, and creature comforts instead of: community, love, spirit and comeraderie.   Our world is showing us outwardly what's going on inside.

The shooter in Las Vegas was reclusive - disconnected.  In so many ways we are disconnected.  In these mobile times many lack connection with family and community.  We are out of touch with our core values, leaving us struggling within.  What is the message? How does what is happening around us guide us to live our lives differently.  What is the purpose of life?  What is the purpose of death? These are questions to be searched as we stop, look and listen all around us - upon tragedy like this and like the terrorist attacks, floods, the hurricanes, the fires and the earthquakes  .  

This is our opportunity to search our priorities and redirect our lives.  And, as we hold compassion in our hearts and minds, as we grieve, we also thank those who have shown us these messages.  We bless them as they move on to their next journey.  We bless those who grieve for their loss as they learn the abandonment lessons.  Pain and suffering teach us and we thank those now released in spirit for offering themselves up to help raise consciousness. It's up to us whether their lives were lost in vain or not.


If we stop look and listen to the messages of our earth and the bodies inhabiting our planet - might we see messages suggestive of change?  Might we not see a grand call to Love and an awakening of consciousness?

The world is an outward manifestation of an inward condition.

Peace to our hearts and theirs♡
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Ancient Hearts Meditation

7/19/2017

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Picture...a few friends of A Place of Peace
This past Sunday our visitor, Glenn Horton, shared with us his deeply inspired musical video which I used for our focus and meditation (with his permission). He has offered the link below. Consider spending 7 minutes of quiet with him - it's really beautiful. The link is below. Thank you Glen Raymond Horton.

If you choose to do so, try looking into your awareness of the Universe, the Cosmos, Mother Earth, Father Sky, Fire, Wind, Rain, The Elements, The Human Heart, Spirit. As you listen, hold your hand over your heart and feel your heart beat. Allow yourself to move deeply within and listen. Hear your breathe move in and out….flowing through your body. Feel your breathe and hear its gentleness as you breathe in and out....notice its rhythm. Now listen beyond your own sounds and listen to the sounds around you. Then listen beyond those sounds.

Can we hear the voices of the heart of the Universe -.the Ancient Ones, and all of Creation?

Do you believe in and understand timelessnes? We chant together each week, "There is no time but now, there is no place but here, in the sacred we do stand, in a circle hand in hand." We stand in Creator's time, the Divine timelessness - all that is is right here in this moment and all places are contained in one place - a sacred place. Do we believe that and do we breathe that? Do we know how to tap into the wisdom of all ages - the ancient ones, our spirit guides and angels, our mentors of all time?

Can we walk through this time in our history - all the turmoil and all the issues,the pain and the problems as well as the joys and transformations? Can we hear the deeper truths of this time - the deeper purpose and the connection to all?

Can we listen from within and take counsel from our elders that will bring us peace? They have passed over, awakened, and they have experience to share. Are we able to quiet ourselves and listen?

Listening to this song, this music and these words - the sounds Glen brings together and the concepts, touched me deeply.

I hope you will tune out your inner chatter, tune out distractions and preoccupation and offer time to listen from within, to connect to spirit, to the collective consciousness, to the universe - and to feel your flow within the collective - to get in touch with your connection to earth, to the wind, the sun, the water, the air…… the feel of nature….

There have been voices
There are voices now
Can you her them

Ancient Hearts ~~ Glenn's latest song for humanity enchants and empowers ~~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkwICB8UQ-8&list=UUlVb8msjfe7snCeQTN5dLJw
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Action and Vibration

2/7/2017

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💜I am awakened by the array of color in our world, in our lives - in our sameness and difference. I am intrigued by the wift of the breath of life’s calling in so many ways and directions - toward Love, in these current challenges. I am blessed to experience a life where I am free to BE who I am in each moment of my evolution. Oh, how I desire to be respectful of everyone else’s freedom.

I am touched by the active resistance that calls some of us in our country and in our world, in our tribes and in our families these days. And there are those marching for the cause while others are drawn to calling or writing legislators. I feel the pain in the anger of those resisting violently, while others resist peacefully, and their passion is heartening. Some of us are glued to the news so we might take in all there is for the mind’s figuring, while others avoid and refuse to watch or listen on any level - some want to know nothing. Many are in-between. Some study how to effect change, while others counsel those in fear, and still others choose the vehicle of public service; assisting the underprivileged, the homeless and hungry, the elder, our animals - any of the many areas of challenge. And, it is in those arenas where they feel their focused energies promote resistance. Some of us find our way to deep meditation for humanity. Some are holding in their hearts the concerns, the fears, the needs, and the goodness of this time - raising the vibration of peace and of love so as to relax and lift the energies of these days.  There are masks and temples, convents, circles and monasteries - sanctuaries of peace filled with intention, prayer, meditation, vibration…conjuring, drawing and lifting of the energies and vibrations of peace and love.

​We are focused on justice, peace, love and empowerment - we seek to embrace choice and difference. I pray that we will be joined in intention - releasing the separation from judgment of difference. I dream we will love one another and remember our true nature is dependent upon vibration and inner focus. These challenges, these days - they awaken us and they call us out, to Love .

Love and Peace to your heart💜
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Love Over Hate

6/13/2016

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“Especially in times of darkness, that is the time to love, that an act of love may tip the balance.”    Elie Wiesel

I am watching coverage of the tragedy in Orlando last night, and the mass shooting at PRISM.  As I watch, I feel my heart just breaking.  And I grieve not only for the victims’ families, for their friends and for the LGBTQ community - also I grieve for our brokenness as a people.  I grieve for human beings so locked in pain that they will do these acts.   As a mother of sons, my heart breaks for the mothers who lost theirs.  The pain all the way around is just devastating.


We held our usual Meditation this morning at A Place of Peace - focused on compassion.  We lifted Orlando and this time in history to the light, as we called in the silence with our Tibetan Singing Bowls.  The quotes below, shared this morning, seem spot on.

…an excerpt from E.B. White’s Beautiful Letter to a Man Who Had Lost Faith in Humanity: “As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time.”

“Especially in times of darkness, that is the time to love, that an act of love may tip the balance.”    Elie Wiesel

A mother’s cry early this morning as she awaits her only son whom she soon learns has died in an act of hate: “Please, let’s all just try to get along…we’re all on this earth for such a very short time….can’t we please let’s get rid of the hate and the violence.”  Bless her heart!

Bless the hearts of all who grieve - bless the hearts of all of the LGBTQ communities world wide, bless the hearts of those oppressed, and the hearts of oppressors as well.  Bless the hearts of the bigoted and the hearts of those who embrace.  This moment brings such a very deep need for healing.  I pray we will come into a collective consciousness of compassion, wisdom, creation and peace that together claims healing for our world.  We each have gifts to offer unto this process of healing.

May we know deep within that we are, each one of us, a part of this troubled human family.  May we not see our Muslim brothers and sisters, or any others who look or act differently than us, as part of what happened last night, as less than, or to be feared.  May we continue to hold fast to our dreams of an inclusive world consciousness.  May we hold fast to Love over Hate.  May we walk our talk and work in Peace.  

A Place of Peace is within.

Peace to your heart!




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The Winter Butterfly - A Christmas Story

12/23/2015

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Once upon a Winter’s Night                                                                
When the days were short and the stars were bright
 A light shone in the heavens above                                                 
  A light that told of a Presence, of a Promise, of a Love        

This light reached through the darkness to offer sight           

And what was illuminated there was gentle delight
                                                                                                                              
Out in the night forest and lit from the sky                                  
Was a small lone cocoon
Opening                                                                                                          
Transforming into a Butterfly                                                             
                                                                                                                               
  The journey was tough                                                                           
  It was a struggle and it was rough                                                    
  Yet what was born from this journey you could not deny
  Was beauty and promise in this Butterfly                                       
                                                                                                                               
  Love always speaks of promise                                                             
  It always offers hope                                                                                 
  And in this night, as the butterfly took flight
  There was new vision and there was new sight                            
                                                                                                                               
The vision, the Promise                                                                                                                                     
Was Love, Hope and Peace                                                                       
And in this transformation the metamorphosis was complete

A new light, a new day, a new presence, a new way
Without fear but rather trust
The new Butterfly was just
 Free and soaring, beautiful and strong
The beautiful Butterfly sang a new song

Let's take this time of year and the Butterfly's call
 Let's allow for new  vision - Love for us all
   
This is a time to remember                                                                                  
 Love born so small
 Was it in a manger
A cocoon
  Is it in the hearts of us all
  
Once upon a Winter's Night
When days were short and the  stars were bright
 A light shone in the heavens above
 A light that told of Presence, of Promise, of Love
  
Receive this message of Peace, Hope and Love
Allow for transformation as the Butterfly does
                                                ____Teri Kierbel

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Butterfly is the archetype of metamorphosis - the most profound sort of change - and the inescapable symbol of new life.  We would do well to understand and emulate.
 
The Butterfly is a symbol of change, the soul, creativity, freedom, joy and colour. Their power is transformation and soul evolution. Butterflies are messengers that teach us that growth and transformation can be beautiful.
 
The Butterfly possesses the ability to leave the safety of their cocoon to discover a new world in a new form without fear. They work through many stages to become the beautiful creature they are.
 
The Butterfly teaches us….

Blessings of Peace this Season of Love!  May the Light of Love fill your heart and home.   I wish you insight, courage and freedom to soar as the Butterfly.

 

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Why come to A Place of Peace?  Because we are a little "peace" of Love in this great big beautiful world!

8/25/2015

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November 10th, 2014

11/10/2014

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Veterans Day was first called Armistice Day to commemorate the combatants’ agreement to lay down their arms and negotiate the end of “The Great War,” at 11:11 a.m. on November 11, 1918. 

Beyond offering our gratitude for the veterans, 
Beyond our empathy for what veterans endured and many continue to endure, 
Beyond offering our prayers for them,
Beyond our honoring them for their service, which I hope we all do (no matter where I am or what I’m doing: grocery store, super cuts across from the CB Base in Port Hueneme, in a restaurant, on a plane or bus – when I spot a person in uniform I just say, “Thank you for your service.”),  
Beyond our understanding of actual wars and the soldiers’ risking their lives in the name of protection for ours which allows us to exercise our own personal gratitude buttons,
Let us use the war stories to see their outward manifestation of our inward condition.  Let’s look at our spiritual connection to this day – regardless of our individual opinions about the wars our country has fought or fights, or the appropriateness of war in general. 
 
As we remember our veterans on Armistice Day, let’s also look within, to places in our own lives where it would serve us to lay down our arms.  Many of us battle with relationships, happenings, family dynamics, ourselves, etc.  Many hold old schisms and judgments - have been fighting for years with old battles, battles with those around us, and battles within ourselves. 

Are we ready to stop, to look, and to listen to the personal messages of Veterans Day?  Are we willing to lay aside our pride, anger, and resentment to change our behavior patterns for the sake of peace in our personal lives?

We can allow this Veterans Day to spark an armistice, a cease fire, a peace agreement within our own lives. 
Let’s remember that warring with someone, or with ourselves, creates unrest - and that blocks the flow of love and love’s gifts.  Holding onto issues and blocking the flow of love is a major stressor in our body, mind and spirit.  Holding onto warring is ego unchecked - it is a place of judgment instead of acceptance.  The problem with this is that as we judge others, we are only projecting what is inside of ourselves.  When we judge as wrong or bad, we defy the balance in life – the perfectness of each moment intended for our growth and learning.  We defy our connection to the Divine presence running through each story and our connection to source.  We miss the opportunity to check our bigotries and our narrow views.  When we judge, we are not free, we are not at peace, we are not harmonious or balanced. Holding on is about separation and fear.  Letting go is about surrender and peace. We block the flow of Divine Love when we judge – and we participate in war.

This Armistice/Veterans Day lets allow the love to flow unencumbered and allow our hearts to resolve toward peace.   Let’s look within and make peace agreements.  Let’s live and let live in peace.

A Place of Peace is within you!

Thank you Veterans for your service.  Thank you for nudging me forward toward peace in my own life as I resonate with this day and look at my own battles.  Thank you.  Peace to your hearts and minds!


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My 1st Blog  "Wasting Time"

10/13/2014

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In his book The Little Prince, French author, Antoine Saint-Exupery, asks us to consider a concept so simple it seems obvious, yet so simply wise it tends to escape the most intelligent of minds. “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye...It is the time you waste on your rose that makes your rose so important....”

I love that message! I “waste” time. And, I encourage all of us to do so - to “waste” time that we might see from the heart what is invisible. I encourage the wasting of our precious time on the roses in each of our own gardens of life. I challenge us all to “waste” as much time as we can on our loved ones - to meet them from our hearts. I uphold the “waste” of time on ourselves in acts of self love, on causes that arouse our passions and on simple pleasures of the heart that whisper to us of the eternal. I believe the time we “waste” is how we come to know....

A Place of Peace is my Rose, my passion, the whisper of the eternal in my heart. 
 My work with so many beautiful people over the years here continues to touch my soul.  Now, I look forward to this new sojourn as well.  Thanks for sharing the journey with me.  

I believe in the evolution of the human spirit toward a love and need for individual truth. I believe in the healing of our planet, and our people.   I pray that I will understand more each moment I live how sacred life is in all its forms as I strive to grow in wisdom, reverence and respect. As I grow and mature, my plea is for increasing integrity in my life. I imagine peace - for myself and the world - that all may know the beauty and perfection of now.

A Place of Peace is within you!  Teri
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    Teri Kierbel, B.Div., M.Sc.

    Founder/Director
    Counselor/ Interfaith Minister of A Place of Peace Sanctuary and Wellness Center - Ventura California.   Co-conspirator of Love and Peace!

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