A Minha Vida

The Marriage Deal

The ideal that marriage aims at is that of spiritual union through the physical. The human love that it incarnates is intended to serve as a stepping–stone to divine or universal love.

- Mind of Mahatma Gandhi (YI, 21-5-1931, p. 115)

Connection

“Ultimately there are no dualities – neither black nor white, neither oppressor nor victim. We are all connected in a journey toward the happiness that is labeled enlightenment.”

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Written by: Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Patience and Speed

A Warrior of Light needs patience and speed at the same time. The two biggest mistakes of a strategy are to act prematurely and to let the opportunity pass by. To avoid making these mistakes, the warrior copes with each situation as if it were unique, and applies no formulas, prescriptions or the opinions of others.

Caliph Moauiyat asked Omar Ben Al-Aas what was the secret of his great political skill: “I have never gotten involved in any matter without first studying the way out; on the other hand, I have never become involved and wanted to get out right away,” was his answer.

- Paulo Coelho

Portuguese Language

Portuguese is ranked sixth among the world's languages in number of native speakers (over 200 million), and first in South America (186 million, over 51% of the population). It is also a major lingua franca in Africa. It spread worldwide in the 15th and 16th century as Portugal set up a vast colonial and commercial empire (1415–1999), spanning from Brazil in the Americas to Macao in China. In that colonial period, many Portuguese creoles appeared all over the world, especially in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Portuguese is often nicknamed The language of Camões, after the author of the Portuguese national epic The Lusiads; The last flower of Latium (Olavo Bilac); and The sweet language by Cervantes.

History of the Language

Portuguese developed in the Western Iberian Peninsula from Latin brought there by Roman soldiers and colonists starting in the 3rd century BC. The language began to diverge from other Romance languages after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions in the 5th century, and started to be used in written documents around the 9th century. By the 15th century it had become a mature language with a rich literature. In all aspects — phonology, morphology, lexicon and syntax — Portuguese is essentially the result of an organic evolution of Vulgar Latin, with relatively minor influences from other languages.

Arriving on the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC, the Romans brought with them the Roman people's language, Vulgar Latin, from which all Romance languages descend. Already in the 2nd century BC southern Lusitania was Romanized. Strabo, a 1st-century Greek geographer, comments in one of the books of his Geographia encyclopedia they have adopted the Roman customs, and they no longer remember their own language. The language was spread by arriving Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants, who built Roman cities mostly near previous civilizations' settlements.

Between 409 A.D. and 711, as the Roman Empire was collapsing, the Iberian Peninsula was subjected to peoples of Germanic origin, known to the Romans as Barbarians. The Barbarians (mainly Suevi and Visigoths) largely absorbed the Roman culture and language of the peninsula; however, Lusitania's language and culture were free to evolve on their own during the Early Middle Ages, due to the lack of Roman schools and administration, Lusitania's relative isolation from the rest of Europe, and changes in the political boundaries of the Iberian peninsula. These changes led to the formation of what is now called Lusitanian Romance.

From 711, with the Moorish invasion of the Peninsula, Arabic was adopted as the administrative language in the conquered regions. However, the population continued to speak their Romance dialects so that when the Moors were overthrown, the influence that they had exerted on the language was small. Its main effect was in the lexicon.

The earliest surviving records of a distinctively Portuguese language are administrative documents from the ninth century, still interspersed with many phrases in Latin. Today this phase is known as Proto-Portuguese (spoken in the period between the 9th to the 12th century).

Portugal was formally recognized by the Kingdom of Leon as an independent country in 1143, with King Afonso Henriques. In the first period of Old Portuguese - Portuguese-Galician Period (from the 12th to the 14th century) - the language gradually came into general use. Previously it had mostly been used on the Christian Iberian Peninsula as a language for poetry, just as Provençal was used out of Provence. In 1290, King Denis created the first Portuguese University in Lisbon (the Estudo Geral) and decreed that Portuguese, then simply called the Vulgar language should be known as the Portuguese language and should be officially used.

In the second period of Old Portuguese from the 14th to the 16th century, with the Portuguese discoveries, the Portuguese language spread to many regions of Asia, Africa and The Americas (nowadays, the great majority of Portuguese speakers live in Brazil, in South America). By the 16th century it had become a lingua franca in Asia and Africa, used not only for colonial administration and trade but also for communication between local officials and Europeans of all nationalities. The spreading of the language was helped by mixed marriages between Portuguese and local people (also very common in other areas of the world) and its association with the Catholic missionary efforts, which led to it being called Cristão (Christian") in many places in Asia. The Nippo jisho, a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary written in 1603, was a product of Jesuit missionary activity in Japan. Alexandre de Rhodes' 1651 Dictionarium Anamiticum, Lusitanum et Latinum (Annamite-Portuguese-Latin dictionary), based off the work of earlier Portuguese missionaries, introduced the modern Vietnamese alphabet based on Portuguese orthography. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century. Some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal.

The end of Old Portuguese was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral de Garcia de Resende, in 1516. The period of Modern Portuguese (spanning from the 16th century to present day) saw an increase in the number of words of Classical Latin origin and erudite words of Greek origin borrowed into Portuguese during the Renaissance, which augmented the complexity of the language.

In March of 2006, the Portuguese Language Museum, an interactive museum about the Portuguese language was built in São Paulo, the city with the largest number of Portuguese speakers in the world.

Geographical Distribution

Portuguese is the first language in Angola, Brazil, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe, and the most widely used language in Mozambique. Portuguese is also one of the official languages of East Timor (with Tetum) and Macao S.A.R. of China (with Chinese). It is widely spoken, but not official, in Andorra, Luxembourg, Namibia and Paraguay. Portuguese Creoles are the mother tongue of Cape Verde and part of Guinea-Bissau's population. In Cape Verde most also speak standard Portuguese and have a native level language usage.

Large Portuguese-speaking immigrant communities exist in many cities around the world, including Montreal and Toronto in Canada; Paris in France; Asunción in Paraguay; and Boston, New Bedford, Cape Cod, Fall River, Providence, Newark, New York City, Orlando, Miami, Sacramento, Honolulu and Houston in the United States, Buenos Aires in Argentina,Uruguay, and Nagoya Hamamatsu in Japan, in Switzerland, Belgium, Liechenstein, Bermudas, some communities in India,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Portuguese is spoken by about 187 million people in South America, 17 million in Africa, 12 million in Europe, 2 million in North America and 610,000 in Asia.

The CPLP or Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries is an international organization consisting of the eight independent countries which have Portuguese as an official language. Portuguese is also an official language of the European Union, Mercosul and the African Union (one of the working languages) and one of the official languages of other organizations. The Portuguese language is gaining popularity in Africa, Asia, and South America as a second language for study.

Portuguese is with Spanish the fastest growing western language, and, following estimates by UNESCO it is the language with the higher potentiality of growth as an international communication language in Africa (south) and South America. The Portuguese speaking African countries are expected to have a combined population of 83 million by 2050. The language is also starting to gain popularity in Asia, mostly due to East Timor's boost in the number of speakers in the last five years, and Macau is becoming the Chinese Mecca for learning Portuguese, where in early 21st century, the language use was in decline, today it is growing as it became a language for opportunity due to Chinese strategical cooperation with the Portuguese speaking countries.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_language

The History of Portugal

Travelling around modern Portugal you can see the influence of the various peoples who have contributed to its history. the vestiges of Celtic language that remain in the modern language, the chestnut trees and vines introduced by the Romans, the olive trees, tiles and cooking methods brought by the Moors.

History books describe the early recorded history of Portugal as waves of invading armies - Romans, visigoths and vandals, followed by Moors and then re-conquered by European warlords returning from the Crusades. However, the question must be asked as to whether the populations of the country really changed, or was there were merely changes in who they paid taxes to.

It was the Greeks who bestowed the name of Iberia to the pennisular that incorporates Portugal and Spain but the Romans eventually took the region and named it Hispania (or Lusitania), with Olisipo (Lisbon) as the western capital of the Roman empire. The Romans provided the predominately Latin roots of the Portuguese language, as well as the road networks that formed the basis of todays motorways and connections to the rest of Europe.

Rising up from north Africa, inspired by the prophet who had died only 79 years earlier, came the Muslim invaders in 711 AD. The Moors held power in Portugal and Spain for the next four centuries. In 1147 Dom Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, led an assault against the Moors aided by mercenaries from across Europe. The decisive battle for the capital took place at the castle in Lisbon, which in victory, the Portuguese turned into the castle of Saint George.

It took another 100 years for the Portuguese to finally complete the reconquest of Portugal. Many of the Moors continued to live in Portugal and converted to Christianity. In fact, the area around the castle, where Fado music was born, has long been refered to as the Moorish quarter.

By the 12th Century Portuguese merchants were trading with the English and the Italians and over time ships began arriving in Lisbon carrying Milanese, Genoese, Catalan and Majorcan traders and travellers.

The Portuguese pioneered the concept of overseas colonisation on the islands of the Atlantic. Vasco de Gama became the first European to sail down western Africa and travel round the Cape of Good Hope to reach India in 1492. Indian pepper and cotton soon began to be shipped to Portugal, followed by Chinese silk and porcelian and later, Indonesian perfume and spice as the Portuguese expanded their trade routes through the Far East. In 1500 Portuguese ships landed on the shores of what would become its greatest colony, the vast and rich lands of Brazil. As a result of these pioneering explorations Portugal became the supreme global empire of the 15th and 16th centuries.

With imperial expansion came exploitation, in this case the creation of a vast trans-atlantic slave trade. The Portuguese explorers who reached Angola and Kongo found an environment inwhich local chiefs could supply them with slaves, usually people captured on raiding parties against rival clans, or people accused of criminal acts or withcraft. The numbers of African´s brought to Portuguese shores during this period is suprisingly high, at one point 10 per cent of the population of Evora was black. With the discovery of Brazil the slave trade boomed, marking the beginning of a trade that Britain, Holland, Spain and France also embraced and eventually took over from the Portuguese.

In 1568 a 14 year old boy called Sebastian was crowned King of Portugal. By the late 1570's, the now wild and fanatical, King Sebastian led a disastrous attempt to conquer Morocco. The invasion led to his death and the destruction or enslavement of all but one hundred of his army of over 20,000. The royal succession was determined in favour of the Spanish Habsburgs. With the ascension of Philip II of Spain, all of the Iberian Peninsula was brought under Spanish rule. The rebellion against Spanish rule broke out in 1640 and continued for the next three decades until 1668 when the Treaty of Lisbon acknowledged Portuguese independence.

Portugal entered into the Treaty of Windsor in 1386 which promoted trade between the two countries and created a useful alliance to counterbalance France's power. For a long time the treaties signed Portugal signed worked primarily in Britains favour by giving them cheap access to Portuguese cloth and Port wine, however it proved essential for Portugal when Napoleon invaded in 1807. The following year Wellingtons armies entered Portugal and spent the next three years battling the French in Oporto, Almeida and Busaco.

The revolutionary ideas that had taken seed in France eventually spread to Portugal and the "Liberal Revolution" led to the first elections being held in Oporto in 1820. Over the next thirty years Portugal went through the inevitable phases of radical reformism, reactionary backlash, civil war, mass uprising and urban terror, until 1851 when the revolution ended and a transformed Portugal settled into stability.

Despite the overthrow of the aristocracy and the empowerment of the bourgeoisie very little in the way of dramatic modernisation occured, although there was a large growth in the textile and glass industries and vigorous programmes of public works. The Brazilian colony that Portugal had relied upon for its wealth had become independent in 1822, and now most of the money came from remittances sent home from Portuguese migrant workers and the wine trade. Portugal attempted to build a new empire in Africa but came into collision with Britains colonial ambitions.

In 1890 Britain issued an ultimatum to Portugal over Central African heartlands that Cecil Rhodes was claiming. Portugal capitulated leading to countrywide demonstrations and a discrediting of the government. Proletarian uprisings, of both democrats and anarchists, eventually led to the toppling of the monarchy and the declaration of a liberal republic in 1910. However, unable to satisfy the demands of the rising proletariat and the middle classes, the liberal republic was soon overthrown in the military coup of 1926.

For the following fifty years Portugal was ruled by an authoritarian conservative dictatorship known as the "Estado Novo" (The New State). Although the New State was essentially a fascist regime, Portugal remained neutral during the second World War. Because of its anti-communist platform the dictatorship was tolerated by the allies following the end of the war. After a long period of economic recession Portugal experienced a rapid increase in wealth as a result of renewed vitality in its African colonies and the large expansion in the European market for Portuguese migrant workers.

By 1974 industrialists and the military desired a faster pace of modernisation and the growth of independence movements in its African colonies led to another military coup d'etat this time led by the left. Portugal experienced a brief flirtation with Marxist ideology but General Antonio Eanes was elected keeper of the constitution and for the next ten years the democratice process was allowed to evolve without military interference. In 1986 president Mario Soares brought Portugal into the European Community and since then the country has been governed according to moderate-centre politics. The rapid economic expansion that the country underwent in the 80´s and 90´s has slowed over recent years, but Portugal´s entry into the EU has focused the political culture which is now driven by greater involvement with other European nations.

source: A Concise History of Portugal by David Birmingham

The Influence of the Moors in Spain and Portugal

The same degree of intellect and learning was brought by the Moorish conquerors of the Iberian peninsula to Portugal. Like Spain, that country was to be culturally influenced by the Moors. Its association with Africa dates as far back as the fourth and fifth centuries when Africans arrived in southern Europe. But it was in 711 A.D. that they marched in as conquerors under the command of Tarik. To reinforce what has been said earlier these Moors, as the early writers chronicled, were "black or dark people, some being very black.

After the invasion of 711 came other waves of Moors even darker. It was this occupation of Portugal which accounts for the fact that even noble families had absorbed the blood of the Moor.

From that time onwards, racial mixing in Portugal, as in Spain, and elsewhere in Europe which came under the influence of Moors, took place on a large scale. That is why historians claim that "Portugal is in reality a Negroid land," and that when Napoleon explained that "Africa begins at the Pyrenees," he meant every word that he uttered. Even the world-famed shrine in Portugal, Fatima, where Catholic pilgrims from all over the world go in search of miracle cures for their afflictions, owes its origin to the Moors. The story goes that a Portuguese nobleman was so saddened by the death of his wife, a young Moorish beauty whom he had married after her conversion to the Christian faith, that he gave up his title and fortune and entered a monastery. His wife was buried on a high plateau called Sierra de Aire. It is from there that the name of Fatima is derived.

The Moors ruled and occupied Lisbon and the rest of the country until well into the twelfth century. They were finally defeated and driven out by the forces of King Alfonso Henriques, who was aided by English and Flemish crusaders. The scene of this battle was the Castelo de Sao Jorge or, in English, the Castle of St. George. Today, it still stands, overlooking the city of "Lashbuna"--as the Moors named Lisbon.

The defeat of the Moors did not put an end to their influence on Portugal. The African (Moorish) presence can be seen everywhere in Portugal; in the architecture of many of the buildings. They still retain their Moorish design--like the Praca De Toiros--the Bull Ring in Lisbon. A walk through Alfama--the oldest quarter in Lisbon, with its fifteenth century houses, narrow-winding streets--dates back to the time when it was the last settlement of the Moors. Fado singers abound in all corners and bistros of Afalma. Their songs and rhythms owe much to the influence of the Moorish musicians centuries ago. Even the fishing boats on the beaches of Cascais show marked African traces. Called the rabelos, these boats, with their large red or white sails, which also ply on the Douro River to fetch wine from the upper valleys, are reminiscent of the transport boats of Lagos in Nigeria.

Written by: Edward Vivian Scobie

source: The Golden Age of the Moor by Ivan Sertima

You Know You're Portuguese When:

Your mother or grandmother has Maria in her name.

You have a rooster napkin holder.

Your father or grandfather is called Manuel, José,  Antonio, or João.

You have crocheted doilies on your kitchen counters, dining room, living room, bedroom--on all your tables.

You decorate your walls with plates.

Your house is a mini church with just as may statues of saints and Jesus as your church itself.

You're 25 and still living with your parents. (Extra points if you're married and living with your spouse in your parent's house).

You warn other drivers of police on the highway by flashing your lights, even though one of the drivers might have just robbed a bank.

You baptize your child and send him / her to catechism even though you might never go to church except for weddings and funerals.

You think all university graduates should be called "Doutor" and like to be called it if you are one of the chosen few who have managed to finish college.

You park on the sidewalk when necessary, even asking the person standing there to please move away.

You have a mobile phone and spend a small fortune on it, but think twice about going to the dentist.

You have a mother or grandmother who wears black.

You spend your holidays in Spain instead of in Portugal because it is cheaper.

If you are a woman, you have been to see a "curandeiro" (healer) or have had your fortune told.

You insist you wouldn't be caught dead buying Spanish olive oil even though most of the olive oil consumed in Portugal comes from Spain.

You laugh at jokes about the Alentejanos but get angry to know that the same jokes are told in Brazil about the Portuguese.

You think that you can catch a cold with a draft or by sitting in the spring sun. Cold drinks are also thought to bring on the dreadful "gripe" and don't let anyone have a shower after eating, as something terrible could happen to them.

You get a letter from your doctor saying you can't work because of an "unspecified ongoing medical condition" and then go on a two-week holiday.

Your child's teacher misses two weeks (because of a letter from his or her doctor) and you don't complain because you also will use the same doctor when you have to miss two weeks from your work.

If you are from Porto you don't like people from Lisbon and call them Moors. The reverse is also true but they don't call you a nice word like "Moor".

You think Brazilians speak incorrect Portuguese and will not read a book written in Brazilian Portuguese.

The last major military victory you can remember your country having was the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385.

You say that the Portuguese, unlike the Spanish, are good at learning foreign languages.

Your parents own like 9 houses in Portugal but complain about the lack of money in the States.

Going to Portugal involves buying gifts for all 500 members of your family.

You go crazy for the World Cup.

You refer to Portugal as "O Continent".

You've walked in "as paradas" longer than you can remember.

You have grape vines in your backyard.

You earned over $10,000 for your first communion.

To hell with the Turkey and Roast Beef! X-mas dinner was bacalhau au braz, baby!

A barbeque does not consist of burgers on the grill... Hello! Can you say sardinhas?

You've had your license for a month, but your $20,000 car has been "hooked up" for a year. I'm talking rims, tints and a system.

A wooden spoon equals discipline or if you ever had to duck so you wouldn't get hit with flying shoes.

Your parents anticipate that you'll marry your first long-term boyfriend / girlfriend.

When you hear the word "Sagres" you think Beer, not historical marine school.

Nothing beats a buttered papo-seco.

Your 15 year old brother is allowed to have two girls sleep over, but your 19 year old sister can't go out past 7pm.

You think that 2am is too early to go to bed and that 11am is to early to get out of bed.

Your grandmother tells you look sick because you are too thin.

Your parents make you eat 3 servings of dinner at each sitting otherwise they think you don't like the cooking.

You're proud to be Portuguese - and you pass these jokes on to all your Portuguese friends!

Spiritual Growth

Spiritual growth occurs all of the time regardless of whether you are preoccupied with all of the trivialities of day to day living. It grows even more so when we least expect it. Our soul is infinite and therefore it is constantly at work, developing and expanding; it is an eternal growth process. The realities of life can be harsh and at times the physical self can become so engulfed in the here and now. After all how can spiritual growth be measured in a tangible form?

Something to keep in mind:

It is important to reflect on your day; to remember the people and situations in it. It is all too easy to overlook the development that your so called ‘shitty day’ has given you. We instinctively deal with situations on a sub conscious level, in business and in our personal lives; the progress is there and if you sit and reflect you too will realise that you deal with life a little bit smarter each day because you have learned from the activities of the day before. Your soul works much in the same way but of course on a much deeper level.

It is important to Meditate:

• I know that we read this often and it becomes a bit boring even writing it but it is a significant act. It is the act of synchronising with our higher self; our soul and the divine presence. Synchronisation happens all of the time but this does't mean that you are fully conscious of it. Meditation is when your mind, body & soul become one; an epiphany or moment of realisation. These moments happen often in life, so don't think it is a one off. This is the way that the universe shows you that you are growing.

• Mediation doesn't have to entail this stereotypical archetype involving a room full of incense and Tibetan temple music; however it has been known to help a bit. On the contrary, I have learned that sitting in London traffic can be an excellent opportunity to unwind and reflect. Notwithstanding that it also teaches you to be very patient!

• In your quiet moments, it is important to test yourself; sit in your own silence without distractions or comforts. It might be an idea to try this before you go to bed or first thing in the morning. Just breathe and listen; try not to think too much about what you need to do today or tomorrow (this is much easier said than done). What do you hear? How does this make you feel? Are you relaxed? Find your central point - this is a place where you feel at ease and free. I won’t lead you to believe that this place is found easily. Meditation is a discipline and with time it becomes second nature to go to your central point much easier and in any environment.

The Soul:

The soul is the human body's teacher and guide. It knows to put us in situations that will benefit our physical and spiritual growth. It learns at a much faster pace than we do. It has played the life game quite a few times now and so has learned quite a bit through these experiences. Your soul knows exactly what it is that it will gain from your lifetime. This was agreed well in advance of your birth. The soul doesn't speak a language that is understandable to humanity; this is something that you learn through time. You also learn to have faith in the energy and the fate in which your existence is made of.

Learn to Love:

Another aspect to keep in mind is that it is very important to learn to love who you are and what you will become through time. I have learned through my spiritual work that many people think that love is something that you can control or make happen. It is common to assume that the feeling of love can only be felt when you are with another person. The reality is that not everyone will experience; a twin soul experience in this life nonetheless it is important to learn to love yourself and your experiences always.

Love to Learn:

Education will always be the most important resource that any human can utilise in order to obtain a better knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of life and the various aspects in it.  Never shy away from learning anything new or old.  I promise you that even when you think you have learned all that you can, there is always going to be something new that comes and challenges your beliefs and views.  Arrogance wins nothing and therefore always be humble with your intellect and never assume you know more than your peers; each person has a different lesson plan.  We are all intelligent in our own way.

Learn to Listen:

If you listen you will realise that life never stays still; the noise from the cars outside, the birds singing, the central heating or your clock. It is impossible to turn life off. Over time we adapt to our environment and we learn to fade out the noises of life; selective hearing. Everything has its own rhythm and slowly we learn to become in harmony with all that is around us. In the process this can sometimes make us feel very restless; the need to move around and be active; this is due to the changes that you are undergoing. Be patient but also don't resist the unknown.

written by: Evete Van de Saar © 2006

Manifestation

Practice

"We call prayer... that speech of man to God which, whatever else is asked, ultimately asks for the manifestation of the divine Presence." -Martin Buber (1878-1965)

The divine Presence is with us always. Here, now and always. It's just that we are not always aware of that presence. We're so busy getting things done and just handling life that our attention is elsewhere. That's why it is so important to spend time on our spiritual practices. During that time, we remind ourselves of who we really are, and of what is really important. Taking some time to center ourselves with spiritual practice helps everything in our lives flow more smoothly.

-Lissa Coffey