Planning, building, formatting, tweaking and more building.
…That’s what I’ve been up to.

I hope everyone is well. Just a quick note to let you all know I haven’t “abandoned my blog”. I realize there are a lot of abandoned blogs out there. This isn’t one of them.

I’ve been feeling a little guilty (if you could call it that) about my long silence. You know - like people visited my blog, joined my community and some subscribed to the feeds, and after yet another month, where in the world is she? If you missed me, I apologize.

I’m not lost. I’ve just been busy creating a comfy “home” for us (on top of a couple more blogs). I guess you could say I’m still in a setup phase. I’m not quite done with any of them yet, so forgive the mess and bare walls. It’s not exactly ready for entertaining, but I’m doing it all live so you’re welcome to watch the painting, installations and furnishing if you want. (Of course you might just want to wait until at least the menu pages and subpages have been set up and populated and read it all at one time.) Just keeping you in the loop. I want you all to feel a part of this… and also to know that we will continue what we’ve started.

With the home site, Boundless Abundance Lifestyles and my other blogs, we’ll all be able to have greater interaction. That’s important to me.

While I am hoping to invest the bulk of my efforts planning and writing for IWannaGetFree, the other blogs, Boundless Love - Power of Love and Boundless Abundance - Ever-Present Abundance are also related to our IWannaGetFree theme and vision. More importantly, the themes of these blogs lend themselves more easily to commenting. More detail on these sites can be found at SpiritFREE1 Updates. Boundless Abundance Lifestyles will be able to bring all of these blogs and their people together as a little “family”.

Since I don’t know where I’ll be posting from one moment to the next, Boundless Abundance Lifestyles will be a central reference point for all the sites with feeds and updates, and a community area for our combined community.

Of course, there’s no information of value in there right now, but if you think you like the concepts of the blogs, you might just want to join the Boundless Abundance Lifestyles community and subscribe to feed updates by e-mail (and the other communities as well if you’re so inclined).

I’d recommend joining the community as well as using feed updates because while some updates will be posted on the site in What’s New, others may be sent only to community members by broadcast.

Anyway, just wanted to touch base. Thank you for your patience. I’m glad you’re here.

Sending you smiles from the Lost & Found,

SpiritFREE1^SM

Do you ever wonder what makes people behave the way they do?

We are each special in our own way, as we each have our own individual expression and our own strengths. Clearly, we all came here with different bodies, but at our core, we are the same One.

We are all made of the very same Divine stuff. The Life and Breath in us is the same. Living Vitality is right here within and flowing throughout each one of us - Intelligent and Automatic (causing all of the systems of the body to function with one another), Vibrant, Harmonious, and Abundant.

Yet people behave so differently. Why?

Behavior

We see some people who are generally pleasant and well-mannered. These people appear to be pretty level-headed. Then we see others and think, “Why does he do that?” or “Why does she act like that?” or “Why are they so angry or loud or combative or possessive or controlling?” or “Why do they start so much trouble?” or “What’s her problem?”

A different set of questions could be, “Why he so shy or quiet” or “Why is she so self-effacing?” or “Why is he so unsociable?” or “Why is she so solitary?”

The vast differences between people can be baffling at times, especially when we look at situations and feel that certain responses are totally uncalled for.

Perception

We look around and identify most with people who think, say and do things like we do them. We unconsciously reason within ourselves, “OK, that’s reasonable. That’s normal.”

But then we see some people doing things we couldn’t imagine doing in 100 years. We see or hear of someone doing something that to our mind is so awful, insensitive, and sometimes even heinous.

And then there’s someone else who seems much more patient, tolerant, friendly, generous or sacrificing than we would ever imagine yourself being.

Or we see someone who is bolder, more confident, frank, forthcoming, open, honest, authentic, outgoing or outspoken than we’re used to.

One person seeing one of these people is inspired and full of admiration thinking, “Wow, I wish I could be like that!” Another looks at the same person and shakes his head, “What a sucker. What’s wrong with her? Is she stupid or just naïve?” Big difference in perception.

Learning

Yet despite our many differences, human beings are very much the same. We all pretty much have common sense. We all live and learn something from our experiences. “Ouch, fire is really hot! I won’t touch it anymore.” So what makes us different?

Somebody may say, “No I’m not sure we all do have common sense; nor that we all learn. Some people never learn.” Well, while I agree that it sure can seem that way sometimes, I’m going to have to disagree. I still think people are all basically the same, and they generally operate the same way.

Modus Operandum

“What do you mean telling me that people operate the same way?! Have you not seen the difference between the behavior of saints like Mother Theresa and devils like Jeffrey Dahmer? Do you think they operated the same way?”

Again: Yes, at a core level, I do. What’s the difference between a saint and a devil anyway? I have come to believe that only one thing makes our lives and experiences any different.

So what then is this difference between us all? Why do people behave so differently? Read more »

Do you read backwards?

With most blogs, unless the blog owner changes it, ‘next’ or “>>” moves to the next post in the past while ‘previous’ or “<<” moves back toward the future.

Kinda counterintuitive… until you get used to the idea that since it is a blog, you probably started from the most recent post… so then the ‘next’ one would be the ‘next’ most recent.

For most blogs, if they are daily-or-so “web logs,” I suppose that works in a “bloggish” sort of way.

This blog, however, is a bit different. It is not a log of current events and ideas as they occur to me based on what’s happening this week. While there will be some of that here as well, the overall picture is that this is primarily a progressively reasoned piece of work. (At least that is how it is starting out.) One thought builds on previous thoughts.

This blog was meant to be “read backwards”. The rationale is covered in more depth here in Getting the Most from This Site.

So just a heads up:

The Previous and Next arrows on this particular blog have been rearranged to make offline, real-time sense. Previous moves towards the past in real time, and Next moves towards the future.

Now that we’ve got that sorted out…

If you want to start from the beginning, visit our Archives, and guess what? Start from the BOTTOM, LOL. Kinda backwards, huh?

Happy reading!

Cheers,

SpiritFREE1^SM

Whew! Well, it sure is good to be back. Thank you for being patient.

Had a bunch of web hosting challenges from 6/1 through 6/11. Naturally, I spent the 12th on my “business resilience plan” lol.

To give you a bit of an idea:

First the server for my shared-IP hosting went down and I did not know why.

Having the feeds interrupted and knowing people had no idea where we were was very disconcerting.

Then I had challenges finding a suitable dedicated-IP host. This took a few days.

Then we had challenges getting the site back up and working properly. For a couple of days, it was working on the front end, but not the admin section.

Then I couldn’t access my domain, although the rest of the world could see it. I cannot tell you how frustrating it was. Had run antivirus and spyware detection, and still nothing. Had contacted my ISP to examine my network, and still nothing.

Then all of a sudden, I could access it.

Then I could not access it again.

Then I could access it again.

Imagine the confusion … not to mention, frustration. (Interestingly enough, when I ceased to be bothered about it, that was when things came together.)

So…

After multiple helpdesk tickets, the troubleshooting efforts with at least six people, and PLEASE let’s not forget prayer/meditation and keeping a calm head, I think we’re okay now.

And boy, am I glad to be back! I’m very thankful, indeed.

Stay in the Loop

If anything ever goes wrong and you cannot find this site, please visit my home site, Boundless Abundance (once I have it up) or my wordpress.com site SpiritFREE1. In the event of such situations, I will post updates at least one of these places until such time as we’re back up and running.

Another idea would be to join my MyBlogLog community, so I can keep you posted should anything like this happen.

Thanks for being here,

SpiritFREE1^SM

What makes a woman beautiful? What makes her shine? What exalts her and causes her to be honored and respected? Her strength is deep. How does she thrive?

With my recent focus on setting up this site, you may have noticed that I haven’t posted any articles in a few weeks. Interestingly enough, this particular topic was not even on my mind. Then I came across an article by Steve Pavlina.

I discovered Steve Pavlina just a few weeks ago in April, read a few of his posts and perceived integrated wisdom coming from a very real place. Less than a week ago, I subscribed to his RSS feed. I didn’t look at it for a couple of days, and then in my reader, I saw this: “How to Be A Man” (2 days ago).

The Value of a Vision

I thought to myself, “Well, that’s interestingly bold. Hmm, let’s see what this is about. …but judging from most of what I’ve read of his, it’s bound to be pretty good. And if it is, our boys and young men could use some inspiration and guidance.”

(Our grown men too, for that matter. There’s no shame in improving one’s game. The only shame is in being too proud and stubbornly rejecting proper development for destructive, unfruitful, well-worn habits and conditioning. Therefore, a man who is honest with himself and others, and humbly persevering enough to admit defeat enough times to finally learn to find and follow the successful paths in life has all my admiration, respect and cooperation.)

So I read it, and yes, it did turn out to be a good read. At points, he had me saying, “Go ahead, man, tell it. Go ON with your bad self.” There is not one verse of scripture quoted, but I see godly principles of faith, integrity and sovereignty running all through that article. And then, at the end…

Steve threw out an offer to the community to write a female version. I said to myself, “Wow. I don’t know. Write “How To Be a Woman”. That’s a pretty big responsibility.” They are some pretty big shoes to fill to tell someone how to be a woman. I don’t dare claim to have all my ducks lined up in a row, lest I fall due to complacency or pride alone. There are certainly areas in which I can improve, but I decided to give it a shot, because I can share the vision of womanhood that inspires and guides me.

After all, in order to reach a goal, we’ve got to first have a vision of what it is, and what it’s supposed to look and feel like. In order to climb to a mountain peak, we need to see it and understand where it is. Until we do this, it matters not how near or far any of us are to any goal, since we can’t see the goal clearly enough to be able to advance toward it wisely and effectively, with vision and purpose.

The Strength of Womanhood

In keeping with my belief that at our core, we are all the same, I feel that much of Steve’s discourse on “How to Be a Man” applies to the woman as well.

Are there differences? I certainly think so, but the core qualities of inspiration from within, integrity, honor and faith remain. The difference is perhaps more one of tone, intuitive sensitivity, refinement and purpose - skillfully crafting our strength into a more gracious expression that nurtures children and loved ones, and that flows, inspires and cooperates harmoniously with the more masculine energies in life. I believe this is what distinguishes us from men.

Our strength is complementary and shines through our compassion and adaptability to the people in our world. We are motivators to friends, family, co-workers, bosses and employees. We are peacemakers, harmonizers. We are the glue that knits families together - that link Read more »

First cause is invisible. As such, every problem (as well as every blessing) has its cause in the invisible.

Go to the Root

If we wanna get free, in order to fix a problem and heal our lives, we have to go to the root or the cause and fix the cause. If we want weeds out of our garden, we need to pull them up from the root. All else is just a band-aid. It’s a quick fix like sweeping dirt under the carpet, but it never really solves the problem; therefore the true problem never really goes away. It just becomes more tolerable for the moment.

For instance, when doctors remove cancerous cells, they are trying to remove the cause of the sick condition, and if they are successful, then in a sense, yes, they are removing the cause - the physical cause. But although they may heal the person for the moment, in many cases, we hear that the condition comes back again later. Why? Because they have not removed the root cause, which is energetic.

Similarly when someone, a co-worker, boss or relationship partner causes us much distress - I mean they are just a thorn in our side - and we resent them, sure we can leave the job or leave them in search of calmer waters, and sometimes this may be necessary. But many people often find that the new job, which was supposed to be the answer, or the new mate who was “so perfect”, eventually begins to reflect the same types of issues back to them.

So until the actual root cause of the problem within is resolved or removed, all we have done was change the form (and perhaps intensity) in which the problem manifests, to one that may be more tolerable for a while.

First Cause

Everything begins in the mind.

“In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God, and the word was God.” (John 1:1)

And we know that God is spirit. So the word is spirit. If we could just stop right there… Wow!

God (first cause) created from Him/Her/Itself, for there was none else. God created from the Spirit of God’s Mind. What is in the mind? Thought. What a is thought? A pre-verbal word. An unspoken, un-manifested WORD. The spirit of God “moved” (was active) upon the face of the waters (the deep substance from which things are formed), and then “said” (spoke forth the form of the things of his/her/its mind). (Genesis 1:1-3)

(I say that water is the substance from which things are formed [or brought "into formation"] because the continents rose up out of the deep water, and because it is a known fact that our bodies are made up mostly of water.)

Anyway, God’s spirit moved, or was “moved” - that’s thought energy in motion, and he spoke according to what he believed/felt. When he “affirmed” what he believed and felt, in so doing, he brought it forth, and all that he said, became so. We are made in the likeness of God. We are infinite Spirit, apparently trapped, so to speak, in finite bodies. So too, does our consciousness create.

Thoughts are Things

Thoughts are things. They are the energy behind things. Our emotions are the result of our interpretations of what we think, or how we perceive, how we think about things - what we believe about things.

E-motion is energy in motion. The atom is a unit of energy. We know that everything has a chemical composition comprised of different molecular configurations, and whatever the nature of a thing, it can be manifested in solid (ice), liquid (water), or gaseous (vapor) forms. But energy begins in the formless and hardens into form. Even so, energy begins with our beliefs and thoughts, moves through emotions and hardens into the manifestations of the events of our lives.

God is Love. Life is perfect, harmonious, abundant, creative, productive energy. Each thought is a lens through which this energy passes and is interpreted. Thoughts pass to and fro. They permeate the “atom”-sphere. If we catch a thought, and dwell on the thought, and feel something about the thought, we are giving motion to the energy of that thought. We are having e-motions or energy in motion within ourselves.

Beliefs Determine Experiences

We are catching passing thoughts and activating them within our own experience of life. We don’t even necessarily have to dwell on thoughts to give them entrance into our lives. Some beliefs are embedded deep in our consciousness, have been there since childhood, and are subconsciously running our lives. It’s subtle, but to be sure what we believe on whatever level, we will manifest (on whatever level or to whatever degree). And if we dwell on something, it is magnified.

Have you ever felt someone’s presence? When some people come around you, have you felt a depressing atmosphere? Then when other people enter a room or speak, there’s this heightened atmosphere, or they seem to possess a “glow”? That’s the effect of their energy in motion creating their aura or their “atom”-sphere.

Our deeply-held beliefs (conscious or otherwise) determine the thoughts that we think, and therefore the emotions that we feel and embody in every form of our lives and affairs. One person experiences something one way; another has a completely different view and therefore experience of the same event. Our experience of our lives and affairs has to come from somewhere. We attract what we think about and/or believe. Can our experience truly come from anywhere but somewhere inside of us? We are the only constant everywhere we go.

“…The curse causeless shall not come.” (Proverbs 26:2)

So when we have out-of-order or mal(bad)-functioning beliefs and therefore faulty thoughts and negative emotions (some repressed) running around in our subconscious minds, Read more »

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
(John 8:32)

Well if we wanna get free, I figured one of the first things it would make sense to talk about was knowing the truth.

Both truth and knowing come on many different levels. But it is the truth that we know that makes us free in whatever area of our lives.

How many times have you acted on mistaken information, or drawn conclusions and forged ahead to do something that ended up not being in your best interest, only to find out later on what the truth really was? The truth would have really come in handy then, wouldn’t it?

In a deeper sense, it is the Truth we know about God, ourselves, our world, and life in general, that will really make the difference for us in healing every area of our lives.

Anyway, please take a look at Truth Makes Free. It’s a static page on this site. It will tell what we’re all about. Let that substitute for this post.

Have a wonderful day, and may peace, joy and love be yours.

SpiritFREE1^SM

Hi everyone,

Since we’re talking about getting free, I thought it would make sense to talk about what freedom means. To me, freedom is perfect peace, harmony, love, joy, health, prosperity, fulfillment and perfect self-expression.

The Freedom tab above tells more about what freedom means to me, and my motivation for this site.

Peace and liberty to all,

SpiritFREE1 ^SM

Hello everyone! Welcome to my site, and THANK YOU for stopping by.

I am looking forward to an enlightening experience with you all. I hope to share things that will inspire you, confirm some of your own beliefs, and/or stir up your own inner thought processes for discussion.

If we can do this, as we share here, we will encourage one another. And as we encourage each other, we can use the positive energies and enlightened ways of thinking, to heal our lives.

As we heal our lives, everyone will be happier and more prosperous. Yes, we can make a difference in the lives of others as well, because we will become positive catalysts for good in each of our individual families and communities…and even the world at large!

Please be patient with me, though. Everything is not all up yet. This is a work of love in progress. Well, I gotta start somewhere. Feel free to bookmark … and check in often.

Again, welcome, and thank you for coming. It should be an awesome experience!

One Love,

SpiritFREE1^SM