Summertime brings us together. And being together is a joyful gift! Last week, Tom and I gathered with dear friends to watch fireworks and laugh about old times. Our kids are all in college. How fortunate we are to share our collective lives! Our young adults arrived at the picnic with new boyfriends and girlfriends in tow, stories of freshman year drama, and plenty of hugs to go around. In the Michigan Midwest, being with people you love under a perfect sunny sky while something is on the grill, well, it doesn’t get much better.
The simple pleasures of jumping into a lake or time spent in a wicker rocking chair near the impatiens on a screened porch is one way I reconnect with nature. Every summer, I marvel at the stretches of hot, sunny days and how good it feels to have a cool lemonade in hand. On Sunday mornings, when I stroll through the Farmer’s Market in town to buy tomatoes and basil, I inhale the smells of newly picked produce. It’s good to reconnect with our food too! I try to pass by the cherry pie vendors, 
unsuccessfully of course, as I cannot resist fresh baked goods. But at this time of year, it’s important to wake up our senses too, and consciously reconnect with Mother Earth and her bounty. It feels good to enjoy.
Having just completed my new book The Oneness Gospel: Birthing the Christ Consciousness and Divine Human in You, I’m so happy to reconnect with you, my reader! And, I am now indulging myself in a few summer reads. I am enjoying The Gentle Art of Blessing by Pierre Pradervand. As a blessing giver, this book caught my eye. Pierre writes about new ways of seeing our world and says we remain connected and in tune with our “world family” through the power of blessing. I couldn’t agree more. Living life, Pierre says, is simply the process of removing barriers to experiencing Divine love. As a spiritual practice, constantly blessing people wherever we go brings us closer to humanity and the heaven within. When we bless someone, we affirm the good (and God) that is within all beings. A blessing helps us be aware of our own inner perfection.
Let’s recognize that the whole world is one family. This month, when you meet friends or even God through quiet meditation, be aware of the perfection that exists in your connection though consciousness.
Summer Affirmation: I am at peace with life and nature, fully connected to the light that exists in everything and everybody. My world feels good and I radiate beauty. God’s love is reflected in me.
Summer blessing: I acknowledge the universal presence and loveliness hidden from my eyes and the unlimited good in every person and situation. I invoke the Divine to provide my friends and family with abundance. From the bottom of my heart and with great love, I see their complete fulfillment and deepest happiness.
Every Blessing,
Charlene
Copyright © 2010 by The Goddess Network, Inc., and Charlene M. Proctor, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
The Rev. Dr. Charlene M. Proctor of The Goddess Network is the best-selling author of Let Your Goddess Grow! and The Women’s Book of Empowerment. A Blessing facilitator and a Minister of Spiritual Peacemaking, she is dedicated to helping awaken individuals from all walks of life to the magnificence of their own Divine gifts. Visit www.charleneproctor.com for many books, workshops, and recordings and her blog at www.charleneproctor.com/blog.
Are you reading this summer? Check out Charlene’s Shelfari for her favorite books! Love your Kindle? Buy Let Your Goddess Grow! and The Women’s Book of Empowerment!
Lately, my heart has been uplifted by the joy and hope that is so strongly felt by everyone during the holiday season. Part of the Christmas celebration is to renew our faith in the light that naturally shines through each one of us. The deeper message of the season is that we can experience a rebirth from our physical or matter-bound existence and embrace the limitless nature of our own soul. It is the time of year that we recognize each of us carries an individual spark of divine creation. To understand and practice our unlimited potential to love brings us closer to the Creator’s idea of us.
