Namaste Beloveds,

Greetings & Easter Blessings this Good Friday & Earth Day, this Good God Day! During this Holy Week, the image of Jesus praying in the garden of has come to me repeatedly. We all face our own crosses of suffering however tiny or tough and like Jesus, we can turn to God for strength & clarity. The image of the garden reminds me of our Sacred Mother Earth who we also honor this day; she is the beautiful reflection of Love & Life itself. With the anniversary of the beginning of the Gulf oil spill this week, we are also reminded of all the senseless human acts of crucifiction that our Mother has endured. Both our Mother & Jesus embodied unconditional Love & acceptance which empowers to this day the gift of Life and of Spirit to RISE UP ~ no matter what!
This month we focus on Faith & Forgiveness in our Co-Creating Heaven in 2011 and true to form we have had further deepening and insights into both as well as their synchronistic relationship with each other. The core thread lies with judgement. Faith allows acceptance and nonjudgement thereby negating the need for forgiveness at all. The Radical Forgiveness teachings of Colin Tipping really work through this concept ~ that with divine order, everything is on purpose and there is no need to forgive any "wrong" because it is all right & true & perfect even when it's messy and uncomfortable. Yes, this is a challenging process for any age! Yet, I am commited to working with this for myself and Jeremiah. You can read more below in our Family Faith Sacred Space section. We wish you the happiest & holiest of celebrations this Good Friday ... this Good God Day! May you & yours be filled with Easter Blessings & continued
Christ Consciousness as our Spirits ever rise in the beauty & growth of Life!

Prayer Practice

For our prayer this month, we look to this Native American vision of the garment woven through the Creator as weaver and the materials coming of the Earth. It is a prayer that honors the earth, is based in faith and implicit forgiveness. For those in mediatation on the resurrection of Jesus, it was but the garment that was found when the stone was rolled away ...

Family Faith:
Sacred Space

Our home spiritual practice this month is focussed on forgiveness & faith. Pictured above is our "Forgiveness Box" also known by other names like "God Box". It is something you make from a shoe box or such whereby you can write out your cares & give them to God. In this case, we are searching our hearts for present or past hurts we feel the need to forgive. Writing them down and casting them away empowers faith & freedom! It also often helps us see the smallness of these "things" and how if we can step away from judgement, the need for forgiveness dissipates. In strengthening our faith, we are daily naming & claiming something we each have faith in and filling our board with these heart encircled reminders. Simple actions with a visual reminder absolutely strengthens awareness and spiritual growth ~ for both of us! On the In Our Hands webpage, you can see the video on our faith & forgiveness practices. Also on the In Our Hands webpage, is this month's Green Living segment with us revisiting our garbage & recycling habits in contribution to our beautiful planet. Visit with us & tell us how you live green! We want to see your garbage! And for more on (our) family spiritual practices, join us each Monday for the Mindful Matters blog! Share with us your mindful selves!

In Our Hands Faith, Forgiveness & Recycling!

Interfaith Inspirations
Earth Day, 4/22 is celebrated world-wide with attention to honoring our planet and in taking care to practice conservation. While this is an event traditionally held as a secular celebration, an expanding consciousness & evolution for our connection to our Earth Mother marks this celebration as one with increasing spiritual significance. Season for the Earth ~ hosted by AGNT runs runs April-June.
On the Interfaith Calendar this month, there are many celebrations & honorings including Hindu New Year, April 4 & Therevadin New Year observed by Buddhists on April 18. Qingming is a Chinese tomb sweeping to honor the dead on April 5. Ramanavami is the Hindu celebration of the birth of Lord Rama April12, and on the 14th is Baisakhi, the Sikh honoring of the founder of Kahlsa. The Baha'i commemoration of Baha'u'llah is celebrated in a 9 day Festival from April 21-29. Jewish Passover, also know as Pesach which beins at sundown April 18th and runs through the 26th. It is the Jewish celebration of deliverance from slavery.

And of course, as we have been discussing, Christian Easter has fallen in April this year. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday on April 17 where Jesus rides in on the donkey and is celebrated as Mesiah. The Last Supper or Maundy Thursday is followed by Holy Friday remembering his death and Easter Sunday the 24th celebrating his ressurection.