How will you cross the bridges that you’ve imagined?

Have you realized, yet, that the path to your High Places is not accessible from the road of troubled low-beliefs?

Imagine walking on the road next to a bridge . . . and just as the bridge begins to ascend and stretch across the body of water, you reach the shoreline and you have to stop. And all you can do is look up and wonder what it would be like to cross that bridge.

From where you are, you can only imagine what it would be like to stand, suspended, over this water. And, you can only imagine what might lie at the other end of this bridge.

Walking a ways alongside a bridge is obviously not the same as actually ascending that bridge . . . yet, this is the very scenario that represents reality for many of us.

Don’t we often play things out over and over again in our minds, but always stop short of taking any real steps?

We become familiar with what we presume to be the slope of the bridge.

We envision what the problems will be.

We imagine the fierceness of the wind on our faces.
And we imagine the fear we’ll feel at looking down into the deep water beneath us.

We imagine and imagine until we have gathered enough reasonable support for our initial fear-notion—that something will go wrong if we were to try to cross the bridge. So we don’t cross. In fact, we don’t take any steps on the bridge. We come up with a million and one good reasons why we shouldn’t, yet, we can’t get away from our intuition’s insistence that we should try.

Moving your life from Trouble to High Places is a courageous undertaking that begins as a prayerful urge, and grows from a high-belief-lurching-forth into an awkward, indescribable, half-flying/half-crawling leap of pure Faith.

Your desire to change will come sporadically at first, like little hiccups of longing. But your desire will have to become full of Faith before you can take your first real steps.
Spanning the bridges with your mind, and rocking your considerations back and forth, you will sense yourself living between two different realities—the reality in your womanspace, where your visions are already real and grown, and your outer reality, where your hope-seeds may not have even sprouted yet.

Today, imagine yourself being ready to leap forward.

Imagine the amazing things that could happen if you were to leap!

Know that the most effective leaps are leaps of Faith!!!

Excerpt from From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy!  Copyright 2009 Esther Davis-Thompson.

Are you speaking fear or Faith to yourself?

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Without Faith it’s impossible to please God.

Taking your thoughts to the highest level of Faith is an ongoing process that results in self-acceptance, self- understanding, and self-actualization. When we find that our mind-talk consists of a lot of fear-filled negativity—be it self-criticism or self-aggrandizement—we know it’s time to stop and re-orient our inner notions.

Whenever you find yourself trying to think your way through a particular situation, ask yourself these simple questions—

Is this Faith talking?

Is this fear talking, or true reason?

What fear can I identify here . . . and lay to rest with my Faith?

Is there a way to pull Faith into this situation?

What could I do, right now today, that requires Faith?

Excerpt from From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges that Lead to Joy! Copyright 2009 Esther Davis-Thompson

Are you ready to leave your fear zone?

Yes, our fears like to boom in our minds in a loud, action-arresting, nasty voice. Fear is definitely an attention-hog, demanding that we drop everything and listen as it warns of the impending disaster and failure and destruction that might happen.

Your fear has the power (that you have given it) to derail every positive train of thought you come up with— stopping you from heeding your growing pains and taking the steps you need to be taking to move your life forward. But you can stop it from taking over if you start to develop awareness about just how often fear has been showing up and reigning in your life. If you’re not sure of your personal fear quotient, ask yourself this: How many decisions has fear made for you lately?

In the last month?

In the last week?

In the last two days?

How about in the last hour?

Understand that the only way to shut down the fear you feel about any situation is to pump up your song of Faith. Drown fear out. Fear’s wrong. Even if the dreaded thing happens. Even if the thing that you so don’t want to have happen . . . happens, it will not be the way fear has been threatening that it will.

And know that the more you depend on Spirit to show you the areas of your life that require spiritual work, the less power fear will have over you.

Remember the “Mother May I?” game? Well, on your life journey, you are both mother (who gives permission) and baby (who takes the steps). And, if mother is a big old scaredy cat—who’s afraid to take risks or venture a thought outside the box—baby’s growth is going to be considerably thwarted.
In some instances, especially where fear is concerned, it may help you to think of yourself as the child, and your spirit-woman as mother—the inner one who fuels your best decisions and weighs the criteria on every situation in your life. Realize that your spirit-woman’s instruction resonates with Divine Wisdom . . . and honor her for choosing to grow you up.

Excerpt from From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges that lead to Joy! Copyright 2009 Esther Davis-Thompson

How Do You Handle the Hard Stuff?

Give It To God.

I know . . . this sounds way too simple. But it’s the best way I know to handle those seemingly impossible sticklers of real-life. Do what you can . . . give what stumps you to God. That’s truly how I’ve come to live my life.

Do you remember, as a child, when you picked up something that could harm you, your mother would say—“Give it here! Give it to me!”

Do you remember that?

Well, there are still times when we insist on picking up and holding on to things that we’re better off without. Things that we don’t understand the workings of. And heavy things that we’ve carried for so long, and become so familiar with, that we don’t realize they’re creating holes in our womanspace and making us act other than who we truly are.

Today . . . sit in Spirit for a time. Think about that thing that’s worrying you, dominating your thoughts, and determining the color of your days. Give this thing that is broken, cracked, dirty, wrong, too hard, and too tiresome . . . to God. Give the impossible thing that sits heavy in the middle of your mind, and in the middle of your life, to God . . . and let God deal with it. Let Spirit do what Spirit does—work things out Divinely. Have that much faith. And keep reminding yourself that this is no longer your battle to fight. It’s Spirit’s battle now. Refuse to give so much thought to it anymore. Pray about it. Leave it alone.

***

My God,
Today, I am thankful . . .
for the health I do have,
for the strength I do have,
for the hope I do have,
and for the wisdom I do have.
For the family you’ve given me,
for the friends you’ve given me,
and the love you’ve placed in my life.
For the peace you’ve given me
and for the clarity you’ve given me.
For answers to prayers,
and for solutions to problems
(especially those I didn’t expect).
For fullness of heart on some days
and for my aching heart on other days.
For the experiences that stretched me
and for the experiences that bled my heart clean.
I am thankful, Lord,
for your reasons,
and your purposes.
For the things I understand
and the things I don’t.

___
From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy!

What change does your spirit-woman want to create?

Re-inventing your womanspace has everything to do with honoring your creativity. Imagining new things. Dreaming and envisioning. Exploring your passions and your wonder. Taking every opportunity to bring new, good things into existence!

How can you spark your creativity? (Creativity is always needed to approach the path to your High Places.) You can start with these questions:

What in your life is already good and right?

What would you like to see more of?

What do you fancy? What do you really like doing?

What could you do in your little corner of the world, today, that would make your inner-woman smile?

Could you make one little change?

What small thing could you create today?

What small change could you create?

Do you know that positive change is sacred?

When you move a chair, or place a flower, plant a seed or make a skirt, speak your truth or give some love, you are creating change. You are causing something that never was to be. You are creating something where there was nothing. You are moving energy from one state of being to another. You are focusing your power, like a laser, to create change.

Change begets change.

Little changes can make you think you could make bigger changes.
You are up and moving forward.

Start with this thought: You are moving forward.

This is a new day for you.

You have decided to commit yourself to creating a better life for yourself.

Hug yourself. (Really!)

Celebrate. (Really!)

Be thankful that you’ve come to this place of mind.
Make it real to yourself by saying it aloud . . . and then writing it down and tucking it away for safekeeping—

“Today, I am taking a step toward re-creating my life.

I am walking toward the many bridges that will lead me to Joy!

I am reaching for my High Places. “