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Walk Your Talk AND Talk Your Walk
"Walk your talk" is a proverb used by some North American Indians" a Walk Your Talk website says. And I thought AA invented it! (Pays to Google before you misinform your constituency.) No matter what the source, I love this simple phrase with an unmistakable message: live what you say you believe. I came from a religious culture where mostly sincere and well-meaning people "talked, sang and quoted their truth," but seemed to live very little of it day-to-day. It was the biggest conundrum of my childhood-and a painful one at that. Then years into my adulthood and launched onto my own spiritual path, my astrologer said to me, "You are called to become what you needed spiritually and didn't have." What a different spin on my history!
That was almost twenty-five years ago, so I've been working on this thing for quite some time. Even so, I'm not ready to have my "walkie talkie" success rate published in Facebook. However, I am content with my progress-and here's why. I've learned that while it's impossible for an evolving mortal like me to always "walk my talk," it is almost always possible to "talk my walk." For me that means that when my walking isn't up to par, I am honest about the gap. I am aware and willing to acknowledge my pratfalls to myself and when it's important, to others. This "other half" of the Walk/Talk paradigm keeps my mouth in fairly good sync with my feet and moves me along the path of my calling: to be someone I didn't have, someone who lives what they say they believe. This has become my personal definition of integrity. And as far as I'm concerned, integrity is the best, most luxurious "under" wear available.
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Guidance for Talking Your Walk
Turn up the dial on self-awareness. Here's what it comes down to. Do I want to know when I'm not walking my talk? There may be people in our lives who are happy to point out the discrepancy, but isn't it ever so much better to be that person ourselves? Only when we can spot our incongruence can we take the next step.
Once we see the gap between what we say we believe and our behavior, we have choices! For example, we say I believe in emotional honesty, but deny our true feelings when a friend asks, "Is anything wrong ? Or "Is it okay if I leave my chimpanzee with you another day?" Or "It bothers you that I'm always so late, doesn't it?" As soon as we are aware of such a glitch, we can: a) fully acknowledge the truth to ourselves (which is surprisingly relieving when done without judgment) or b) commit to making a different choice next time and giving some thought to how it will be expressed or c) course-correct with the person involved. All choices are good because even if we just acknowledge the gap to ourselves, b and c will eventually follow.
Create evolutionary relationships that value word-walking. I recently took a teleseminar called, "Feminine Power," with Kathryn Woods Thomas and Claire Zammit. They distinguish between "girlfriend relationships" (based solely on sympathy and support) and "evolutionary partnerships" where women support each other by lovingly bringing to awareness each others' patterns and false beliefs. This new kind of friendship isn't for everyone, but for those who want to walk their talk, it's worth its weight in gold-covered chocolate.
Have you "talked your walk" recently?
How did it impact you?
Til We Cross Paths Again,
Maridel
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Evolving Journey Astrology
February Reading Special!!
Valentine's Day may be a "Hallmark Holiday" but February can be a month of honoring relationships of all kinds...and looking deep into the mirror of your own relationship profile.
Offering A February Special ...
A reading of the relationship profile in your birth chart: What is your personal definition of a satisfying relationship? What are your relationship patterns? Clues to evolve and resolve them? What is your biggest asset and your biggest challenge in love? |
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Announcing...
"Houses of My Consciousness"
Waking From Religion to Spirit
by Adelaide Woodcook as told to Maridel Bowes
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Click to Order from Amazon
Available in softcover or Kindle |
When an eighty-seven year old woman receives spiritual guidance that she doesn't want to follow, she decides to ignore it. But as the weeks pass, events conspire to convince her that she must respond to the mysterious message. For months after taking action, she's perplexed. Why had the guidance been so compelling? What was its purpose? Then on a cruise, she encounters a stranger with a message of her own and answers slowly begin to reveal themselves.
This is the story of Adelaide Woodcook, who was born into the heart of a religious system tht made no room for her high-spirited personality or her innate connection to God. Marrying a minister of the same faith, she sealed her commitment to the church and her place within its hidden world. But even that vow couldn't stop her yearning or her search for an experience of God outside the doctrine she knew.
"Houses of My Consciousness" is a journey through the houses Adelaide inhabited throughout her life--each the back drop for experiences that led to her extraordinary late-in-life transfomation and the guidance that would bring everything to fruition.
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© 2009 Evolving Journey. All Rights Reserved. Contact Maridel Bowes at maridelbowes@gmail.com.
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