Chris Duel

Broadcaster, Soul Provider

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Winter Solstice

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Do you feel it?
The moment darkness reaches its apex
And the bitter cold evokes your grief
While warmth, light and summer sun
Seem distant
You realize
The longer you live
And the seasons change
This frigid darkness
Is merely a fleeting precursor
To the return of the light
Through orbiting spheres
And the dance of all creation
Repeating itself
Again and again and again
After countless cold, dark winters
On this Winter Solstice
You choose to embrace the darkness
Knowing that this moment
Gives birth
To the light you need
Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice

Leave Them Better Than You Found Them

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I came across a quote today…

“Leave them better than you found them.”

How wonderful is that?

Leave them better than you found them.

What if all of us left people better than when we initially met with them?

In every encounter, doing something to uplift others, inspire others, make others feel better. Without regard for ourselves, but with absolute regard for the other people in our lives.

How much better would all of our lives be?

I strongly believe that the benefits to the provider of such kindness would equal or exceed those of the receiver.

Why not try it?

Direct experience is so much better than theory.

Find out for yourself.

Leave them better than you found them.

And get back to me with your results.

 

Equinox

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Equinox arrives

From the heavens
Amid the starry sky
Flashes of lightning
Illuminate awakening
To the season of Spring
And the end of Winter
With its loss and grief
Days growing longer
But for this moment
All is equal
Light and Darkness
Hope and Fear
Pleasure and Pain
Chaos and Serenity
The unseen world appears
Translucently amid the twilight
I open my arms
Gaze to the sky
Listen intently
To the music of the spheres
And I am equal
To the bliss
To the fear
To the love
Welcome Equinox

 

Grievance or Miracle?

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Choose Miracles

Choose Miracles

 

“You can have a grievance or a miracle.

You cannot have both.”

 

This is my favorite line from A Course in Miracles.

A lifetime of experience reveals the wisdom of these twelve words.

They speak to the power of focus, the power of gratitude and the corresponding power of dwelling on the negative.

Miracles rarely occur when we are mired in grievances.

Yet when we appreciate our blessings, they somehow multiply.

There’s the old adage, “What you focus on increases.”

This is a transformative idea.

Do you want to focus on grievances or miracles?

Miracles are everywhere.

All around you.

Your next breath is a miracle.

Start there.

Miracles snowball.

And so do grievances.

The choice is yours.

It’s a big, life altering choice.

You are empowered to choose every moment of your life.

Choose wisely.

Choose miracles.

 

 

Many Paths To The Mountaintop

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Many Paths To The Mountaintop

So many times you’ve been told

There’s only one way to get there

And for so long you believed

The admonitions of those who spoke with authority

As if their chosen path were the only way

Yet somehow their directions did not ring true

Something inside you whispered otherwise

Their maps weren’t meant for you

Your navigation comes from within

An internal guidance

Revealing the way

That only you should travel

Knowing that even if you drift off this path

There’s another

And another

Even the perfect path

That is always a breath away

When you release the māyā

And feel

Your one true path

Of many paths to the mountaintop

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

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GivingThanks

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving.

Break it in two…

Thanks + Giving

Flip it…

Giving + Thanks

While we rightly recall the holiday’s origins of a feast between the New Americans and the Native Americans,

We can also internalize it

Make it our own

In our modern lives

And give thanks

For all the blessings

We often miss

When we are clear

We can see those blessings

Everywhere

And realize

This Is The Sacred Moment

And give thanks

For this recurring

Yet one and only

Thanksgiving.

Thank You

For crossing my path

And being a part

Of my life.

This is the Sacred Moment

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Have you ever taken very deep breaths, calmed yourself into a moment of clarity and considered how very sacred and fleeting this life is?

When you remove your mind’s default settings of living in the past or thinking about the future, you realize that all you really have is this very moment.

Before this moment was the past. It contains billions of years of star collisions and the astronomical improbability that led to creating the one and only you.

But it’s over.  It’s past. Even yesterday and the last hour are gone forever. Phantasms.

Beyond this moment is the future we cannot see, but the near certainty that your physical life is a blink in the eye of the vast expanse of time.

So what is real?

This breath.

This moment.

They truly are sacred and fleeting.

The ancient wisdom traditions urge us to place our focus upon the here and now.

Instead of obsessing about thoughts of the past or the future, you can choose to be conscious of the blessing, the gift that you have right now.

All recorded and unrecorded history since the Big Bang and beyond culminates right now.

Right here.

Where you are.

With your eyes on these words.

In this sacred moment.

(It’s actually mind blowing when you think of the implications)

When you acknowledge this sacred moment you are operating from a higher level of consciousness.

You are no longer trapped in the Māyā.

Anything and everything happens in this moment, including magic.

The magic to see your life and your world as you were born to see it and born to become.

Don’t take my word for it.

Try it.

Breathe.

Deeply.

Let go of past and future and truly exist right here, right now.

Distractions may pull you into thoughts of the past or the future – this is normal.  Just consciously keep your attention and your breath to the here and now.

Stay here.

Stay now.

For just a little longer.

Open up to the experience.

And see where it takes you.

I have a feeling you will enjoy the ride.

This Is The Sacred Moment

This Is The Sacred Moment

 

 

 

 

The World is Not As It Seems, The World is As You Are

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The world is not as it seems The world is as you are

The world is not as it seems

The world is as you are

 

Like attracts like

Vibration attracts vibration

You are living in Heaven

Or you are living in Hell

 

As Albert Einstein said,

“There are only two ways to live your life

One is as though nothing is a miracle

The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

 

The beauty of life is that this choice is yours

 

To quote Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas,

“The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the Earth

But men do not see it.”

 

Some women do

Some men do

They are those who choose

To pull back the veil

Open to the miracle

And realize

This is the sacred moment

 

 

The Summer of Our Discontent

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American Summer 2016

American Summer 2016

How do we make sense of the senseless?

Beheadings and car bombs on the other side of the world.

Civilian “soft targets,” from Paris to Brussels to Istanbul, suicide bombed by “martyrs” in the name of their God.

A slaughter in an Orlando nightclub.

Over 2,000 gun deaths in Chicago this year.

Cell phone video of highly questionable shootings of African Americans.

And now, the ambush and assassination of Dallas Police officers during an otherwise peaceful protest.

Ironically, this most recent national tragedy occurred very close to Dealey Plaza, the site of America’s most notorious assassination.

How do we make sense of the senseless? 

We cannot.

But there are things we can do.

We can affect our own individual spheres of influence. 

Our family, friends, neighbors and communities.

It starts small.  It starts organically.  It starts with you.  And it grows.

We can choose reason over insanity.

We can choose light over darkness.

We can choose love over fear.

We can increase the peace. 

In our communities, in our state, in our nation, in our world.

The good people in this world vastly outnumber the misguided, vicious ones.

I am convinced that in the end, love wins.

We just need to consciously, actively intend the light and the love a little more.

 

Happy Mid Year! – 183 Days Down, 183 Days To Go

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Happy Mid Year

Happy Mid Year

We are halfway through our yearly circle around the Sun.

While we celebrate the New Year by ringing it in, making toasts and singing Auld Lang Syne, are you taking the time to celebrate the Happy Mid Year?

Shall we make Mid Year’s Resolutions like so many do on the New Year?

This is no longer a new year, but a middle-aged year. It’s day 183 of the year with 183 days left, we are perched upon the year’s midpoint.

If we compare the phases of the Moon to the progression of the year, we start at a New Moon (New Year) and the midpoint would be represented by the Full Moon.

The midpoint is now.  With maximum fullness, light and reflectivity.

After the Moon is full, like the year, it will wane, retreating from fullness into inevitable shadow, death and rebirth.

So will our lives and the lives of all whom we love and will ever know.

The circular cycle of birth, growth, fullness and disintegration mirrors every aspect of our lives, our years and the heavenly bodies in the sky.

If we choose, the midpoint of the year – like the fullness of the Moon – is just as appropriate a time to reflect, take personal inventory and begin again.

While you can certainly choose a New Year or a midpoint or a Full Moon as the auspicious moment to make changes in your life, you can also choose any day, any moment, any moon to grow, to evolve, to do the right things.

A day or night like this one is a reminder for us to look at our calendar, look at our lives and look into our souls.

Sometimes the New Year or the mid year or the Full Moon whispers to you that your time is now. And like the year and the ever-changing Moon, your days are full, but also waning.

Perhaps now is the time to choose to become more of the person you came here to be.

Ring it in.

Raise a toast.

Sing Auld Lang Syne.

Even in July.

Happy Mid Year!