On Friday night during our Passover seder, someone mentioned that Mercury was moving out of retrograde. I was happy to hear this, since that typically means the things that are stuck will get unstuck.

I don’t normally follow astrology. I like it, don’t get me wrong. I believe it. I just don’t read about it and pay attention to what’s going on in the stars.

I thought it was appropriate that the starts would be aligning in this manner during Passover, which is when we celebrate being stuck, getting unstuck, moving through narrow places, and coming out the other side to freedom.

I’ve definitely seen some things come unstuck in the last few days. Things seem to be happening… finally. I’ve gotten news about things I’ve been waiting on for a long time. My husband’s business received good news, too. I’ve made new connections.

The question to me seems to be whether or not this is due to the movement of the stars or something else. Like maybe it’s due to my constant focus on my business. Or my husband’s hard work on his business. Or maybe it’s an energetic change within one of us. Or it could be, in my case, the fact that every day I’ve been imagining getting the news I received this week.

What do you think? What makes things get unstuck? How do you get unstuck? Leave me a comment and let me know.

I’m about to go downstairs and start our Passover seder. The sun is setting over the ocean. I can see it from my office window.

Seder means order. The service we conduct on Passover has a specific order. However, it strikes me that life has an order, too. And that much like the Israelites as they were liberated from Egypt, getting to the place we want to go seems to have an order.

In other words, it’s a process–on that often follows the same steps or route over and over again not matter where it is we want to go. No matter our goal. No matter our destination.

If we want a better marriage, a better job, better health, a clearer picture of who we are, more time, a new house…It doesn’t really matter. A process exists to get “there.” We must go through an order of events, a set of steps to make the thing we want happen or to bring it into our lives.

In fact, all of life has an order, a seder. The seasons come and go, the tides go in and out, the sun rises and sets all in an order. We live and die based on an order. Despite the fact that our lives feel chaotic, disorderly, everything proceeds day to day, hour by hour, moment by moment in an orderly fashion.

It is a seder.

So, when we feel as if we are stuck at the edge of something tough, like the Israelites at the edge of the Red Sea, there is an order to that as well. God told us to stop, go inside and get calm, then take action. Moses was told to raise his staff and the waters would part. We do something, something happens.

For every action there is an equal reaction. When you follow the steps, when you go through the seder, something happens. When you walk through into the water like Nachshon–up to his nose–the water parts. When you walk in the desert for 40 years you get to the promised land.

Seder. Order. Whether you know it or not.

I took some time today to go out and look at and appreciate a few trees in my yard. I have a lot of trees because I live in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. Some of them are very old and tower over our house. Others are small and struggling to stay alive during the hard conditions under which they live.

I did this because today Jews celebrate the holiday of Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish New Year for the trees. This holiday is celebrated on the 15th of Shvat, a Hebrew month that usually falls between mid-January and mid-February.

Originally this holiday served to calculate the age of the trees for tithing. Leviticus 19:23-25 states that no fruit may be taken from a tree during its first three years of life. Fruit from the fourth year was given to God as a burnt offering, and in the fifth year the fruit could be eaten. Trees aged one year on Tu B’Shvat, so in many ways Tu B’Shvat is the birthday of the trees.

The holiday is also celebrated at a time when the sap in trees begins to rise within their trunks unnoticed. The trees, still leafless in most places in the world, are beginning to grow, bud and come back to life. They are getting ready to leaf out and bear fruit once again. (Although here in California some trees, like my orange tee, are heavy with fruit!)

As I looked at the trees in my yard, I thought about these things. How much growth goes on within us unnoticed? When does our creative nature begin to rise up and flow? Is it the same for each person?  And when are we ready to give the fruits of that growth to the world?

I firmly believe we all have a God-given purpose in this lifetime. Our desire to create in the world often comes from that purpose, like my own desire to write. But I think first we must want to create for a higher purpose. The ancient rabbis and Kabbalists would say we must create for God—everything must be done for God, given to God—just as the first fruits taken from the tree in the third year were sacrificed. Only then, when we are clear about the true purpose of anything created in this world can we offer it to mere mortals, thus fulfilling our purpose on Earth.

Does that happen in the fourth year of our life? Probably not. Does it happen when we are forty? Maybe. Can we put an age on it as we Jews do for the trees, I doubt it.

I think , however,  when we become clear about our purpose, how that connects us to something greater than ourselves, and the fact that we want to fulfill it  our ability to create happens as naturally as the leaves burst forth, the blossoms open, and the fruit grows on trees.

What do you think?

Chanukah celebrates miracles–the miracle of a small army defeating a large one, of a small jug of oil that should only have burned for one day lasting eight days instead.

This year Chanukah and Christmas fall during the same week. Christmas is about miracles,too–the miraculous birth of Jesus.

It doesn’t really matter if you believe either of these stories are true. Our wisdom teachers–the Kabbalists in particular–tell us that this is a time when we can access the energy of miracles.

As we soak in the light of the Chanukah candles–or any candles–we can become receivers of miracles. Like the oil put into receptacles used to create light, we can make ourselves receptacles for God’s goodness.

Light has always been associated with God. And the Kabbalists say God created us as receivers. We need only open ourselves to that light, allow it in…make room for it in our lives and with ourselves.

How do we do this? I suggest we spend eight days considering the miracles in our lives already. Gratitude is the strongest prayer of all, so why not consider the miracles we already have in our lives, and be thankful for them?  Each night, thank God for a small or large miracle you now experience or have experienced over the last year.

Bask in the glow of miracles.

If you want, you can also imagine the miracles you’d like bestowed upon you in the coming year. Offer gratitude for them–as if God had already graced you with them.

Bask in the glow of these miracles as well.

Eight days of miracles…When you spend more than a week considering miracles, you’ll realize you live a miraculous life all the time. You’ll appreciate the miracle of life and the miraculous nature of God.

That’s the miracle of truly observing Chanukah.

I’ve been getting emails all week about events related today’s auspicious date: 11-11-11. Sure, it’s cool that the date consists of all ones, but what does this really mean? We all want it to mean something…just like we want the end of the Mayan calendar on December 31, 2011 to mean something…significant.

I don’t think anyone really knows what 11-11-11 truly means. That said, I think we can derive a bit of meaning from some of the research that has been done on the occurrence of the number 11 and 11-11 historically. I found a great compilation of data and some analysis of it by none other than Jewish paranormalist Uri Geller. (You can read it here.) He says the number appears as a wake up call, and that when we see it we should take note.

So what should we be taking note of right now? Should we be remembering that the year is coming to a close and it’s time to start reviewing the last year? Or should we being remembering that we as a people very likely are heading toward a major transformation of some sort?

Of course, if we consider the approach of the year 2012 and the fact that many have predicted that the New Year will bring with it a huge change in consciousness that coordinates with the end of the Mayan calendar, which ends then, I begin to think about what new type of world we will discover, what new word will be created–or we will create, at that time.

The Kabbalists would say that we have been in transition and will continue to be in transition for some time to come. The change of consciousness is, indeed, happening, but the major change expected after January 1 is actually a long time off. The Hebrew date of Cheshvan 14, 5772, or November 11, 2011, is 228 years from the time the Kabbalists expect drastic changes in consciousness.  But maybe today is the day the change begins to be felt, the day we begin to truly see the new world, what Jews call the World to Come  and Christians call Heaven on Earth, beginning to take shape.

Why do I say this? Reportedly, Hebrew Scriptures place September 11, 1999 as the 6,000th anniversary of Adam’s creation and year 1 on the Hebrew calendar. If this is true, maybe today is the day a new human being is created and the new calendar actually begins–not on January 1. Could this be true, at least on a spiritual level? It’s worth considering.

It’s worth considering at least for 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

Or maybe it’s just the day that you create a new you, that you take on a new consciousness, that you begin to prepare for the new year if not for a new age. That, too, too might be worth considering at least for 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

Geller says 11:11 is a positive sign whenever we see it–on a clock radio, a hotel door, the odometer of your car, the columns in front of your house. See today’s date as just that–a positive sign that it’s time to wake up. Have you been sleeping, sleep walking through life? Just becoming more awake will change your perspective, your consciousness. That’s also worth considering at least for 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

Not surprisingly, from a Kabbalistic standpoint, the numerology of today’s date also points to the beginning of the new age: the arrival of the World to Come or Heaven on Earth. If you add up all those ones (1+1+1+1+1+1), you come up with the number 6. Six equates to Tiferet on the tree of life. Tiferet is the domain of beauty, harmony, artistry, gracefulness, synergy, peace, blessing, and balance.  It can be best described as many voices blending together in beautiful harmony; it’s the opposite of discord. Sounds a bit like peace on earth, no? A bit like heaven?

That’s something to think about, to pray about, for at least 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

“And the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city…”

How often in your life have you heard God’s voice? Ever? Once? Many times?

For me…It’s a still small voice…very small…I have to listen hard. I hear it if I pay close attention.

When the whisper, the Still Small Voice, calls your name, do you run, like Jonah? Do you ignore the call? Do you do what you want instead?

Or when God calls upon you and ask you to be a messenger, like Isaiah, do you say, “Here I am, God! Send me. Heinini. Shalchayni.”

Me? Well…I don’t always like what I hear. Sometimes the task I’m given feels hard…too hard. I’m a writer and speaker. I’ve been asked to be a messenger, but sometimes I don’t feel up to the task.

God calls, we don’t always listen. We don’t always step up. Sometimes nothing happens. Things just stay the same…not great, not bad. Sometimes, though, when we don’t listen “bad” things can happen. We have to learn to survive in not-so-nice conditions – in storms, in the stomach of a whale.

Maybe we have to work at a job we hate…or we get fired.

Maybe we end up in a relationship that isn’t healthy…our significant other leaves us alone.

Maybe we end up living in a place that doesn’t suit us, or we’re forced to move.

Maybe we don’t make enough money….or we end up in debt.

Our life feels stormy…it feels darky, slimy, scary.

I’ve known this feeling and wondered whether things might be different had I followed through on that one project—that one I felt so inspired to write. Have you ever wondered if things would be different if you’d followed that inspiration you had? That sense of mission…that Still Small Voice that sounded…well…a bit like…you?

The Kabbalists say the Book of Jonah is the story of our lives life. You are Jonah. I’m Jonah, too.

Why? Because Jonah represents your soul. Your soul comes to earth to take a journey—kind of like a ride on a ship—that has a purpose, a mission—only it’s not supposed to be away from God. It’s supposed to be a journey with two navigators, a Captain and a co-captain moving closer together and toward a destination—the fulfillment of your purpose.

The problem is that we forget that purpose, the destination. When God, the Captain, tries to remind us, we often don’t hear, don’t listen or ignore the message. Or we run away from the job we were given. We stop steering the boat, steer in a different direction or jump ship.

All of these actions result in us traveling away from God…and away from ourselves, from that spark within us that has an agreement with God. This leaves us feeling alone in a strange place and often in a bad situation.

Eventually we must begin to heed the call. To listen…Sh’ma.

We have to remember our purpose, our mission…the journey we initially set out upon. A voice must stir from within…or is it from outside of us? Like Jonah being asked,” What is your occupation?” it asks, “What do you do? What have you done? What have you done with your life? Why are you here? Why were you sent? Do you remember? And did you heed the call? “

Take a moment. Can you hear the Captain calling to you? “Arise!”

Sh’ma….listen. Do you hear God calling? Are you being sent? Are you a messenger? Is that your life’s purpose…or is it something else? Will you go and fulfill it.

Shalchayni. Send me. I’m ready.

I’ve been trying to figure out what to write about as a Yom Kippur, Day of Repentance topic. This Jewish High Holy Day typically brings up issues of forgiveness. I didn’t really want to delve into that once again.

Then I watched an Oprah Winfrey Master Class video about surrender, and I knew. That’s my topic: surrender. If ever there were something for a Jew to forgive himself or herself for during the High Holy Days–or for anyone to forgive themselves for any time of the year–its for not surrendering.

More than that, simply commit TO SURRENDER. It’s one of the most powerful things you can do. Seems ironic since it’s actually a passive action. When you surrender you “let go and let God,” as they say in Alcoholics Anonymous. Then amazing things happen. Your path and your purpose are revealed.

In the Master Class video (link below) Oprah talks about jogging and talking to God and singing and praying. This has been my practice–my hitbodedut. Rebbe Nachman told us to walk in the fields and talk to God, to tell hand our problems over to God, to have a conversation with God. To listen to God. I don’t run, but I walk and I cycle. I often talk, plead, pray, chant, sing, ask questions, cry, listen…try to hear or see  the plan God has for me while walking or cycling. This is just what Oprah describes.

And while she focuses on what she wants, she lets go and surrenders. She allows Something Greater to bring her “this or something better… for the highest good of all concerned.” Those are the words are was taught to offer up as I asked for something–a way to surrender my desires to the Universe. And because she is aligned with the energy, sure enough her thoughts, her focus, her intention lines up with her desire and with God’s plan for her.

As always, Oprah just says it all. I couldn’t say it better even if I keep trying.  Her message is the message I take to heart today, for the upcoming High Holy Day, for the year, for my life. I pass it on to you, my friends. Surrender to something larger than yourself. There’s a plan. You have a purpose. Let it unfold.

Watch the video…(I couldn’t find the video anywhere to updload it–sorry–so follow the link).

My computer crashed a week and a half ago. It required that I take it into the shop and have it checked out. There was nothing wrong with the hard drive. The technician said it passed the diagnostics test. The actual computer worked fine. It had a software problem.

To solve the software problem the technician had to “wipe my computer clean.” In other words, he had to erase all the data off it.

Of course, I panicked. My whole business and all my writing projects exist on that laptop, not to mention years of accumulated files and data. Who knows what all is on there…not even me. Then I realized everything was backed up through an on-line program. I could download it all back onto my laptop…a slow process, but I could get all the data once again.

However, that left the other issue: software. The software had failed me. Somehow one piece of it had become corrupted. And now I would have to reinstall all of it piece by piece. While the hard drive – the internal workings of the computer – its body and soul – was working fine, the part of the programs, computer that tells it what to do – the mind and emotions – had failed.  Now I had a chance to add brand new programs.

Each fall we have a chance to wipe clean the computers of our personal lives – maybe not of all the data but at least of the programs that aren’t working. When the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur roll around, we are asked to look at which “programs” – which ways of thinking, acting, and feeling – have failed us in the past year. And we are asked to commit to changing out those programs for new or changed ones. We acknowledge that there is nothing wrong with the basic workings of our computer. Indeed, our souls are pure. Elohai neshama shenatata bi t’hora hi. “Oh God, the soul you have given me, she is pure,” we pray each morning when we wake up. It’s the programs – the programming – we give that computer that mucks up the workings.

You don’t have to even be Jewish to participate in the High Holy Days. Take advantage of the time and the energy. (Check out my book for help using the 10 day period.) Jews and non-Jews alike can wipe clean their “computers” and install new programs, new thoughts, new actions, new feelings for the New Year. They can commit to thinking more positively, feeling more loving, peaceful, joyous, moving towards the targets they set more diligently every day.

What programs (and data) will you take off your computer this year and what new ones will you install? Will you actually run those programs and use them? Let me know.

Rosh  Hashanah begins at sunset tomorrow, Wednesday, 9/27/11. You then have 10 days to wipe your computer clean and install the new programs you want to use in the New Year. Good luck with your restore process.

People come into our lives in all sorts of ways. Some are born into our lives. We are born into the lives of others, thus they become part of our lives. And some walk into our lives due to the places we go and and the experiences we have. In all cases, we have to learn not only to hold on to those people we love tightly but to loosen our grip and to let go…to let them go, if necessary.

I learned this lesson just this week as I let my son go off to New York City. It was not his time to leave home in the traditional sense. He was entering his senior year of high school. He should have been home with me for another year. Yet, it was his time to go…He received a wonderful opportunity to pursue his dance education that he could not pass up, not would I want him to pass it up.

And so, even though it was hard, I just had to let go. I had to let him go.

Was it easy? No. In fact, I spent the last two days at home alone crying on and off. I will miss him…and his senior year. But I’ll survive and he will likely thrive. Maybe I’ll thrive, too.

Often we have relationships that aren’t good for us, yet we cling to them. Or we have relationships that aren’t growing and we know we should allow the other person (or ourselves) to grow. We just have to let go.

When our children go off to college, we have to just let go. That’s hard, too. I’ve done it. (I cried then also.)

Sometimes are jobs don’t fit or make us unhappy. Or we don’t like where we live. Just let go!

Move on. Move forward. Or just let go and see what happens. See how the energy changes, the situation changes on its own when you stop clinging to it, stop hanging on to it and trying to make it work, trying to keep it the same, trying to stop someone from leaving.

How do you do this? With a great deal of faith. Have faith that if you let go it will all work out.

I have to have faith that my son will be all right in New York without me, and that I will adjust to not having him home–that I will find ways to share in his last year of high school despite the fact that we live on different coasts.

Rebbe Nachman says, “Faith depends on a person’s mouth. We must say we believe  — say it aloud! As it is written in Psalm (89:1) ‘I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth.’ When a person has a crisis of faith, or even passing doubts, it is very good if he says out loud: ‘I believe.” Just expressing your faith in words is itself one kind of faith. thorugh doing this you can come to genuine faith.”

This is not much different than the belief that our thoughts and words have a creative energy. What we think and say, we create. So, say, “If I let go, all will be well. I have faith that all will work out for the highest good of those concerned.”

Where in your life do you need to just let go? Try doing so now. Let me know how it goes.

Each year during the Passover holiday Jews tell the story of how the Pharaoh in Egypt enslaved the Israelites. Sometimes we talk about what modern day pharaohs exist in the world. I, however, think most of  us live with personal pharaohs every day–those in our minds.

I know I struggle with the chains put on me by the pharaoh who rules my thoughts. Well, he does not rule all my thoughts, but he does rule my negative thoughts, the ones that hold me back and don’t allow me to achieve my goals or create the things I desire. In this way he keeps me shackled, stuck in one spot.

I was listening to Wayne Dyer the other day and he spoke about how we often have the desire–the thought–that we want to be rich but the opposing thought that we will always be poor (or don’t have the ability to become rich). He said this state of mind equates to insanity. I say it equates to slavery. The part that wants to become rich is shackled by the part that believes it can’t achieve this goal.

Each negative thought that exists in opposition to your positive thought serves as just one more chain that keeps you enslaved to those negative belief patterns. And so you stay stuck right where you are or have been–achieving the same results as before.

How do you free yourself from this bondage? How do you achieve liberation from the pharaoh in your mind?

You become conscious of your unconscious negative thoughts.

Here are a few things to try (and believe me I’m trying them, too)  to help you become conscious of your unconscious thoughts:

1. Catch yourself thinking and saying things that negate what you truly desire.
2. Write down your positive thought in one column of a piece of paper and then write down the first negative thought that comes up in your mind in a second column. Do this until you run out of negative thoughts in your “response” column.
3. Ask a friend or loved one to tell you when they hear you saying something that negates your desires.
4. Spend time journaling about why you think you don’t achieve your desires.
5. Explore any issues of deservability or self-worth with a counselor or coach.
6. Make affirmations of action; rather than saying or writing positive things, actually do things that convince your mind that you are what you say you are.
7. When you say something that negates your positive thought qualify it with the words “until recently” or something like this that nullifies the negativity of the statement.
8. Try talking to your subconscious mind as if is not “sub”-conscious; treat it as if you want it to “come out of the closet” and be known. Talk to it and ask it to talk back to you. Allow those thoughts to come up in meditation or in your journal.
9. In a journal, ask the part of you that feels negative (about becoming wealthy, getting a new job or finding a perfect mate–or whatever) to tell you why it feels that way. Then try to stay aware of this part of yourself when it’s “energy” arises and turns negative at any given point during the day. In Voice dialogue, a therapeutic process developed by Hal Stone and Sidra Winkleman, this is called developing an “aware ego.” The part of you that functions as”you” most of the time becomes aware of the other parts of you that impact how you behave or react–or think.  We all have many parts of our “selves”–an Inner Child, an Inner Parent, an Inner Critic, etc.–and they can become our pharoahs controlling how we behave. Becoming aware of them allows us to free ourselves of their influence over our thoughts (and our behavior).

I suggest you try freeing yourself from the tyranny of your negative thoughts. It doesn’t have to be Passover for you to do this–and you definitely don’t have to be Jewish. We all become enslaved by our negative thoughts to some degree. I hope some of these tips help you find freedom in some way.