[Andrea Barnett Budin]

I'm reading Rachel Naomi Remen's Kitchen Table Wisdom.It is so full of Enlightenment and Insights, I will read it the moment I finish it, scanning the underlined areas I have made. This is one exceptional book!

She speaks of SANCTUARY. Finding your own personal SAFE PLACE. Cats, for example, have their hiding places. But we all need such places.

For me meditation creates an inner silence and calm where I find strength I never knew I had. I feel connected to a force I sometimes call God, and other times refer to as the Universe. It is a place where we become One!

I've discovered that what I feel when I go deep within myself, to my Essence, is -- my Truest Self. I am other than my mind or my body. They are surely a part of me, but the real me is a Spirit. And, of course, this is not unique to me. We are each a Spirit, with a mind and a body...

Our Spirits are full of the divine energy of our Source, making each of us sacred Beings. We should speak and act accordingly. Regarding one another as sacred Beings, and behaving as a sacred being should.

Rachel's safe place allows her to connect with the marvels of the majesty of nature. The giant redwood forest is near her home. How lucky is she! The great trees stand rooted in a silence that is so absolute that it helps her inmost Self come to rest, she explains. She finds the silence this place evokes even more remarkable than the towering trees. Skyscraper high, they have trunks that have grown over a century to have a girth that a car could drive through it (if someone managed to create a tunnel there). I have been to Yosemite many decades ago. But the experience remains etched in my Soul, it was that awesome!

Rachel mentions that she learned that in Spain there is a place within the bullring where the bull feels safe. Can you imagine?! A safe place within such a daunting place -- thwarted by a matador with sharpened swords out to kill you.

If the bull can reach this place, he stops running and can gather his full strength. He is no longer afraid!

This place in the ring is different for every bull, but it is the job of the matador to be aware of this, to know where sanctuary lies for the bull he is up against. To be sure that the bull does not occupy this place of *wholeness* where he becomes empowered and emboldened!

I think of canser and I think of us Warriors seeking a place in our inner world, a place of deep inner silence where we can go to feel safe -- empowered and emboldened!!! It is like finding a way to give yourSelf a hug, to put your arms around yourSelf and attain Wisdom and Guidance. A place where you can experience a Universal Love that simply fills you up to overflowing.

Once connected with my Spirit, in my understanding, I listen to my Inner Voice and feel secure and certain of attaining my dreamed of goals, despite all odds that contradict my notion. There I find the will to carry on. There I find courage. And serenity.

Somethings for you to consider perhaps...

With love always,