Is it any wonder is an on-going series of antidotal stories and observations offered from my daily life.
My hope is that within these continuously growing renderings, you will find something that proves to be of value to your own trek through your days.
Lesley Michaels

Are We Paying Attention?

As I recently found myself contemplating what I could personally offer to HonuaOla, a new acquaintance tossed a surprise invitation to visit Cuba on a humanitarian journey right into my lap. Humanitarian involvement has always rested close to my heart so the idea of visiting this long sequestered, yet very close, neighboring island felt an exciting prospect. That this dovetails perfectly with my other passion of building inter-active, broadly supportive community on a global basis is absolutely exhilarating.

Approaching this the same way I do most things in life, I began to study and research with the intent of broadening my global awareness in specific areas. I sent an e-mail to a number of friends and associates who I know to be intelligent, forward thinking sorts. Essentially, this was a request for recommendations of books read or documentary films seen in the areas of humanitarianism, and social advocacy, as well as global politics, both in terms of recent histories and advocacy movements.

Before offering the stunning results of this request, let me first acknowledge that books and films are certainly not the only means of education in these or any areas. Nothing will ever rise above the expansive benefits of personal experience.

Having acknowledged that reality, in all honesty, I must also admit that I was completely astonished. As I returned to my computer over the following days I discovered few, very few, responses, at all. Several of the responses I did receive, offered recommendations that inspired sufficient fascination to propel me forward to determine if they appealed to my own desires. Two shared titles I had previously read, and found informative and/or inspiring. The remaining, and majority, of the responses that did come through the cyber waves were apologies for having no personal point of reference in any of these areas.

This experience set my mind on the path of considering, is it any wonder we make the choices we do both politically and socially, just to later regret those same decisions? Is it any wonder, we become confused when contemplating these same social and political choices? We have a nation and a greater world filled to overflow with people unable to find food enough to sustain their children, much less themselves, insufficient water, and illness due to lack of education, as well as absence of available means or money to pay for health care. Is it any wonder if we are not familiarizing ourselves with the issues and potential solutions founded by others, thereby igniting our own creative fires so they may inspire us to additional approaches?

Understanding our world, the wider reaching results of our actions, or inactions, the traditions of others around the globe appears to me to be a most essential action each of us is being invited to explore in these days of great planetary need and increasingly depleted resources.

Educating ourselves as to the wondrous as well as the plights of all our planetary brothers and sisters has always been a point of great excitement and fulfillment for me. It has offered profound points of compassionate understanding, and certainly, it has created more questions as well. With those new questions comes an internal opening ready to be filled with even more understanding, rather than assumption and projection.

So, I invite you to join me in this adventure, be it through books and films, or personal exchanges with those vastly different from yourself. Open to new ideas, comprehension of varied cultures, and potentially deep bonds with those who, by virtue of their simply being another human being, are likely far more similar to you than what they are different. As we all brave the chance of having our preconceived ideas challenged and disassembled will it be any wonder if we heal this ailing world by coming to actually care about each other versus our current tradition of rejection rooted in bias and conjecture?

And the Crusades Rage on

As I am confidant is true for of most of us, I have spent much time contemplating the war we are raging on Iraq. What is it truly about? How can we support the innocents who are surely being devastated by bombing strikes and flying, but unclearly aimed bullets? How did it come to be that we of this country and those of this distant land came to hold such complete fear of each other, without ever having met?

Recently some events unrelated to the war in Iraq expanded my perspective to understand that these same questions apply much more broadly than I had initially comprehended.

Next spring I will be making a long planned journey to Gambia, Africa. With this trip and some new plans to visit Cuba, the question I am most frequent asked is, “Aren’t you afraid?” If we are not educating ourselves to what is transpiring in the out-reaching corners or our world, those neighborhoods beyond our own national borders, is it any wonder we might be afraid of those unseen regions, their people, customs and environments?

At a birthday party recently attended, a friend shared his excitement of preparing to travel to Croatia with another woman we know, who works for the state department. The immediate reaction of several present was a simultaneous exclamation, “Isn’t it dangerous?”

If we spontaneously respond from a mind of assumed threat to those things that are simply unknown is it any wonder we of this planet are so alienated from and at such odds with one another? Additionally, it occurs to me that we are after all, each of the same human race. Therefore, if we of this country are afraid of all of the thems that comprise the body of woman and mankind from the other lands around the globe, is it any wonder they would also fear us?

In keeping with this, an old documentary I saw many years ago springs to mind. The story was based on two different and small military groups. Each were separated from their larger platoons by a crushing snow storm during WWII. These two units, one American, one German, were forced to spend several days stranded in an isolated area, just yards from one another. The ensuing days of dire circumstances, provoked a communication link being established between the two groups. The result was a relationship of sorts being established between these very young and dedicated soldiers. Was it any wonder that in the end, this personal recognition of the inherent humanity of another, created of extreme circumstance, compelled each to walk away from what they had been taught to view as an enemy.

This memory provoked me to review our current world, and examine some of the events common to our collective experience. I began to contemplate how we are actually pitted against each other by our political and religious leaders. This being a common tactic of the individuals endowed with positions of power, is it any wonder we do not even trust our next door neighbor, let alone a neighbor thousands of miles away who we cannot see, keep watch over, or know on any personal level? If we can’t trust the leaders of our own country how can we trust those of another nation, culture and belief system?

Time and time again we are compelled by our societal culture to make impulsive and quite possibly incorrect assumptions about others. In our current age of computerization, it is rare to call any company and reach a human, sometimes at all, and at best until we have circumnavigated long succession of computer prompts. We are charged incorrectly by a company, just to be told that although the charge to our account took less than a minute, it may require up to 60 days for the correction to be reflected in our bill. Is it any wonder we do not trust the world in which we all live?

It strikes me that we have reached a critical point in which it is essential to act from a self motivated sense of responsibility and educate ourselves. Whether we read, view unbiased documentaries that familiarize us with facts, or embrace the revolutionary act of actually speaking directly with each other, it is time to know the others of our world. Maybe then we will begin to communicate instead of leaping to arm ourselves against each other.

Being Soul

We as the inhabitants of the planet are now finding ourselves in a period of mighty change. The shifts we are witnessing include our own current evolutions and ascensions into the fourth dimension from which we will soon continue on to the fifth. As this occurs we are now being called from within to live a new expression of our human and soul selves combined into a single life force.

Our individual and collective souls have continually invited us to rise within all we are. For the majority of our years we thought this meant we were to become more than we were. Motivated by that belief, we have struggled, studied and driven ourselves forward, seeking what we imagined ourselves to lack. Now the realization is dawning; we are simply being encouraged to be the more that we are. Seemingly a small difference, but potent in its implications. Within this expanded perception is embedded the realization that we are now and have always been great creators. As we rise to the actualization of this truth, all that appears wrong, broken, or damaged in our world and on our precious planet will become easily healed.

To embrace this new insight let’s begin with acknowledging that due to our soul being something our eyes could not see, hands could not touch, mouth could not taste and mind could not quantify, we have found difficulty in fully acknowledging that the vast body of energy surrounding us is that very soul, our soul. We have referred to it as our aura, our light body, our energy, everything but our soul. In accepting, on every level of our being, that our energy is in fact the radiance of our soul, we experience the felt recognition that our soul is not limited to living within what we call ‘I,’ rather we are living within our soul.

In spite of the inability to physically see, taste or touch our soul, embracing this new understanding gives that soul greater freedom to carry us through our days which creates space for a new peace to settle within. Knowing that we are the heart of this greater and most powerful whole allows us to breathe more easily as it is a constant reminder that we are always cared for in every way possible way.

Each soul’s intent when coming into carbon based life was to move through the physical form it had created for itself, so completely, that our tangible self would become nestled within the soul’s heart. Therefore, as the physical, mental and emotional bodies are the soul’s path of access to the planet—the point of entry for all it chooses to physically create—the vehicle through which it interacts with all other physical presences—it could be said that we as human selves are the Earthly heart of our soul.

We have each dedicated much time and energy to the journey of re-connecting with our soul and Divinity. In considering this entirely new perspective we gain broader understanding as to the folly of this thinking. For this time, cease imagining your soul as being inside you—no longer envision it as some thing that rests only or even primarily within the physical form. Instead play with the awareness that your physical, mental and emotional bodies are within your soul’s living energy.

For just a moment, think of being the physical heart of your soul. Let that realization become felt as it settles into your body and emotions. Carrying this new perspective with you will allow a deeper and broader realization of the truth within it. Settling into a place of comfort with being the physical expression, or heart, of your soul’s Earthly presence, supports development of a full partnership between your soul self and human expression. Therein you will find yourself gently actualizing the truth, that your soul is within you, does flow completely through you, and yet this is not the fullest extent of its reach, either physically or universally. In speaking of shifts in consciousness, this is certainly one of immense significance.

Our souls came to the physical plane desiring expanded understanding of themselves, and the universal whole. From their innate wisdom, they knew one way of achieving this would manifest through the experience of learning to play and create within the physical realms. In mapping this grand adventure they planned multiple ways through which their Earthly lives could be most fully lived. The greatest of these plans is found within this partnership between soul self and human expression.

Actualizing this partnership is a matter of adopting a space of inner transparency. As we relax, become willing to witness all that is true of ourselves, as well as each self constructed illusion, every veil we have clung to, while avoiding recognition of anything we do not sanction within ourselves, simply dissolves. Open exposure to the Light of inner awareness serves as the doorway to full release. Breathing transparency into all mental, emotional and physical levels is an internal movement toward full partnership of our human and soul selves. This blossoming transparency allows our soul to flow freely through every cell of our human self. Therein, it is granted full permission to bring healing, expansion, increased awareness, and pure delight to each moment of life.

This cleared vision affords us a full witnessing of our true self, lets us view ourselves as our soul sees itself. Understanding ourselves as vast and powerfully Divine souls gifts us the freedom to also become outwardly transparent. Clear and residing transparency supports us in entering each moment of life, every interaction as the most authentic presentation of who we truly are. Through this is born the most exalted state of comfort and ease ever known. Within the experience of human expression and soul self partnership, through expanded familiarity with being the physical heart of our soul, there is no longer anything that can restrict us. Through this state of being we are free—fully free—to be all that we are, just as we are, in every minute of our lives.

Reclaiming Eden

As we look around, view the varying searches of humanity, what is continuous throughout all religions and spiritual doctrines is the quest for that “place” of perfection.

This is primarily motivated by the belief that we have been, collectively, exiled to this planet as a form of punishment by having fallen in some way from that ever elusive place of wonderment.

Some teachings would have us falling to Earth as a result of some misdeed, others teach that it was a choice that created a fall in vibration that brought us to this place, and still others have us traveling here from far away galaxies to find ourselves unable to return home.

The one common thread in each of these beliefs is the way in which this amazing place called planet Earth is spoken of, seen on a subtle level, as being in some way “less” than the place from which we all originated, and to which we each hope to someday, someway, return.

Whether this point of origin is referred to as nirvana, Eden, or some undefined ascended universal dimension, the message is the same. We are fallen beings, and whether that fall was dimensional, moral or galactic, life on the planet called Earth is the punishment for the actions taken that provoked that fall.

The truth of this belief can be witnessed throughout our many and varied spiritual teachings and studies. Some people are awaiting an ascension, practicing various ascension preparation techniques diligently. Others are looking toward the day when beings from alternate dimensions or galaxies will rescue us, in any variety of ways. Whatever the fundamental belief, the base elements and messages of this belief system remain the same. This is not a good place to be, this is not where we belong, and praise be the day when we can leave here—and go home.

What is most curious about this prevailing belief system is that in another short breath, the same ones awaiting these rescues will refer to the planet as Mother Earth or the Great Mother. Many are the names applied to this most glorious physical place on which we all live together. Names that one would be led to think indicate a level of reverence, a measure of love, a deservingness of respect, and nurturance. But, if that is in fact true, why are we so eager to escape?

The truth is, we are home, or at least on the only planetary home we have known for ages and eons. This is the place to which we came, for the pure fun of frolicking in what was then a lower frequency, at the time when we chose to move out of the realms commonly thought of as the higher dimensions. Granted, those lower dimensions were not carbon based in that time, but it was something different, and therein, a great new adventure. It was here that we came in order to create the original space of what is traditionally called Eden.

It has long been told of how we came to this place, carrying with us many elements of other physical realities, essentially turning the Earth Herself into a library of knowledge and beauty that represented all levels of existence. But then, as has also been long reported, we became locked into the cycle of the planet, and have remained connected by virtue of the reincarnational cycle since that time. We have returned lifetime after lifetime, just to find ourselves again searching for that treasured space of escape. But it will not be found in an ascension, or a mass exodus of any type.

Now it is time to open our eyes, to look around and to see that Eden, nirvana, or whatever label you prefer, is still right here. We are even now in the Garden of Delight that we long ago came to, by virtue of our pure free will choice. The only thing that has changed is our ability to recognize this truth, and now it is time for the reclaiming of its power.

At our core, we know this to be the truth. In the deepest parts of our beings, we feel the limitless love we have for this planet. And, in our higher mind we carry the awareness that it is through our use of free will choice that we have lingered in this realm for such an extended period of time.

In truth, the power to rise back to our fullness has always remained within our beings, and we could have—at any moment—with only the most gentle nudge from our higher selves or ascended teachers, re-arisen to the place of higher dimensional existence.

But we have chosen repeatedly to return, to enjoy again the richness of physicality. From the wisest levels of our beings, we are fully aware that this physically-based reality is a rare and profoundly treasured gift that we bring to ourselves, over and over again, as we once more return for yet another life. Throughout the many dimensional existences from which there are to choose, and to which we could connect, there are many experiences to be had, but it is only in this reality that we can physically connect with the tender skin of a loved one, smell the delicious fragrance of a flower in bloom, or experience drops of soft, soothing rain on our faces.

We are here, not because it is forced upon us by our higher selves, the universal whole, or any other external force. We are here out of our choice, and we are here to remember. We are here to reclaim the realization that this is the place we have been seeking. And, as we rise back to our own occasion of embracing this truth, we will shift into full recognition of the miraculousness of life lived through the physical plane. Then, through this single, but vast recognition, we will be healed—instantly and completely. All of us, together, will become whole once again. From this wholeness of self, of mind, of beingness, of recognition of the truth of the amazing gift of this planet, then she too will be healed.

She calls to us. Daily. She calls with the beauty of Her rivers, Her deserts, Her fields and Her mountains. She calls to us through the abundance of remarkable life forms to whom she is home. She calls to us of Her unending love by continuing to provide for us, Her beloved, as we ignore Her, desecrate Her, and long for a permanent escape from Her. She calls to us to remember Her, as the Eden that she is, to remember ourselves as Her beloved children. Shhh. Listen. You may just hear Her voice.

Excerpts from the CD Club Recordings
(for more information click on the CD Club tab)
All excerpts and recordings by Lesley Michaels

Passion, Sex and Intimate Love - As spoken by Jeshua and Mary channeled by Lesley Michaels
… Let’s begin with the realization that Life in it fullest expression is an art form. Look around your days, experience the varying textures of life illustrating itself, feel the veracity of the energy of life, float into the multi-layered tiers of it’s constant evolution. Be the body of that art form…
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The Unified Field - As spoken by Jeshua channeled by Lesley Michaels
… I am pleased to have this opportunity to share with you today on the subject of Embracing your Humanity, understanding the Gratitude your soul has for you in being human, and in becoming the unified field of Humanity as bonded to the Soul of your being…
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The Soul's Pledge - As spoken by Jeshua and Mary channeled by Lesley Michaels
… In response to many requests, we are returning to the subject of passion and the way in which it is the vehicle through which the fire of life expresses itself in the physical realm…
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Death and Dying - As spoken by Jeshua channeled by Lesley Michaels
…Death is as important a part of living in the physical world as birth is. In fact you cannot have one without the other. Yet, it is—that death is a much feared experience throughout humankind…
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