So far, so good!

The ever-widening search for spiritual enlightenment seems to have turned ‘Ego’ into a dirty word!

And yet, without Ego there would be no advancement, no progress, no growth and no new inventions.

Ego looks at how something is done and thinks ‘I could do better’ and sets about proving itself right, which improves everyone’s quality of life. Nobody would have broken the four-minute mile or explored Space or discovered penicillin without Ego.

There is no Ego in the Animal or Plant Kingdoms so change is based on evolutionary necessity only and is very, very slow.

Human beings, on the other hand, have made rapid progress because we deliberately look for ways of improving on what is and we couldn’t do that without Ego.

Everybody has an Ego for a very good reason. It is not a flaw; it is a gift and like every one of our innate gifts, it must be used wisely and for the good of the whole.

Ego only becomes problematic when it is directed inwards and seeks to glorify the individual rather than the entire Universe.

I’ve been doing lots of tidying up lately and it has made me even more aware of how fleeting the state of perfection actually is!

As soon everything has been cleaned and polished and ordered and is sparkling in the light, the dust begins to settle and the mess begins to reform.

No sooner has the last weed been pulled than there is a new one breaking through.

The second you believe everything is perfect, it no longer is!

And that’s okay - as long as you’re not attached to the state of perfection!

Maybe perfection only really exists in the act of becoming perfect?

If that’s the case, we are all perfectly perfect!

There are times for careful and considered planning and times to jump in with both feet, knowing you will sink or swim!

The real wisdom is in knowing what time it is!

One project I’ve been working on for a few months has just got to the ‘jump in with both feet’ stage. We can spend many more months teasing it out and trying to define it or we can put it out there and knock the corners off it as we go along - and that feels like the right thing to do now.

It’s a scary moment - just before you jump off the precipice into the unknown - and yet you know that jumping is the only real option, the only way forward.

So, over the next week or so I will be taking a giant leap of faith and launching this unpolished, undefined, undefinable, unfinished, work-in-progress into the world but, because it is all about the beauty of each of us being an unpolished, undefined, undefinable, unfinished, work-in-progress, there is nothing else to do!

More and more I’m walking up to the fact that everything I need to know is under my nose!

It’s taken a lifetime to see it, but the lessons I most need to learn are constantly being presented to me - and will continue being presented to me until I get it!

Lately I’ve meeting loads of people who are behaving in ways that I can clearly see are detrimental to their physical, mental, emotional and/or spiritual well-being. Then, I recognise that I’m doing exactly the same thing!

Or, I hear myself speaking the words I most need to hear, but I’m saying them to somebody else!

Or, I’m writing to somebody and suddenly realise that the message is really for me!

I’m really grateful to the people who have been acting as mirrors for me.

Maybe there were always mirrors, but my eyesight has improved!

There are times in every life when difficulties arise and you need to draw on resources you don’t believe you possess. When this happens, I have found that going somewhere that you can sense the strength you think you lack can really help.

The ’somewhere’ can be a favourite place, a shopping centre, a friend’s embrace, a website.

When I spend time with my horse, all is right with the world and I come away stronger, braver and more grounded.

• If you feel afraid, go somewhere you feel safety
• If you feel poor, go somewhere you feel abundance
• If you feel lonely, go somewhere you feel love
• If you feel lost, go somewhere you feel balance
• If you feel unsure, go somewhere you feel stablity
• If you feel sad, go somewhere you feel happiness

The delicious and magic space between sleep and full consciousness very often delivers gems of insight and I was treated to one this morning!

I felt that all the pieces of a puzzle I’d been working on had suddenly and effortlessly fallen into place. Everything made perfect sense and I finally had the answers I’d been seeking.

Then I woke up and couldn’t remember the answer - or the question! All that remained was that wonderful feeling of knowing that I knew what I needed to know to make the miracles I want manifest in my life.

And then I realised that it didn’t matter at all what the answer - or even the question - was! All that actually mattered was the feeling. If I could follow the feeling that I knew the way I would find the miracles - or they would find me.

I can’t ‘think’ or ‘do’ my way to happiness/abundance/success etc. All that I need is to align myself with the feeling that all is well and the happiness/abundance/success etc will come to me.

On the days I can’t remember the feeling, I can imagine that I remember!

I think that we have all been programmed since childhood to get nervous when everything seems to be going well for us!

This ‘too good to be true’ syndrome causes me to deflect all manner of good things that come my way for fear that their arrival will mean I have to sacrifice something equally good that’s already in my life.

On some level, I am deeply suspicious of having health, wealth AND happiness!

But now, having just recognised this limiting syndrome, I have decided that absolutely nothing is too good to be true anymore.

I hereby graciously and gratefully accept everything blessing, miracle and gift that comes my way - because I’m worth it!

I have an almost unhealthy aversion to being late! As a result, I always arrive for meetings far too early so it’s just as well that I really enjoy the process of waiting.

Last week, as I waiting on a busy city centre street watching people pass by, I noticed that there was a question (from me) attached to each one of them!

• Where are you going?
• Who are you talking to?
• How are you feeling?
• Who are you?
• Where are you from?
• Does that hurt?
• What’s the hurry?
• What’s are you listening to?
• Where did you get those shoes?
• Where have you been?
• What’s your story?
• Aren’t you cold?
• Why are you smiling?
  

And on and on and on!

Imagine if I could have stopped each person and asked about what was going on for them at that moment! What a rich and colourful story that would make!

I don’t have a lot of work on at the moment and find myself almost ‘forced’ to tackle all the jobs I’ve been avoiding - like filing and accounts and book-keeping in general.

There is no excuse now for the sorry mess of papers, receipts, invoices and bank statements lying around my office so I am ploughing through it, putting order on the chaos.

I know that when I have everything tidied up and organised I’ll feel really good about it, so why do I keep putting it off?

Why do I berate myself about my messy office when a simple filing system will solve that issue?

Is it human nature to always need something to be ‘not quite right’ in our lives?

Are we afraid, I wonder, that as soon as everything is perfect, something major will go wrong so we always stay one step away from perfection?

Yesterday a good friend told me that is deeply happy for the first time in years and that news really lifted my spirits.

I haven’t yet found out if there’s a particular reason for this new level of happiness, but in fact, why he’s happy really doesn’t matter at all. What matters is that his happiness is infectious.

Knowing that he is deeply happy makes my heart sing and my happiness spreads to those I meet and cheers them up - and so on and so forth.

It would take quite an effort to stay miserable in the company of a genuinely happy person. I have no doubt there are people who have made an art of being miserable but for most of us, it’s much easier and more pleasant for everyone to surrender to the feeling of happiness when it turns up.

All you have to do is allow your inner smile the freedom it’s craving!