Expansion Encounters - with Dusty
My heart's desire sticks in 2006!

A special thank you to all of you who continue to support Life Now and our ventures!

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A Joyful Autumn to You

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You can read archive issues of "Expansion Encounters" at Archives

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Butterfly Beauty
by Dusty Reed

Enchanted butterfly beauty
Colorful, light and free
As a caterpillar first lived
Unimportant creature indeed
Spun into a crinkled paper package
Mysterious magic performed
Providing a lacy, transformed
work of art
An exciting surprise to the world
Even to butterfly beauty.

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Many Colors
by Dusty Reed

We recently took a delightful trip north to take in the magnificence of the various colors of nature when autumn begins its parade. Shortly thereafter, I was grateful for the brightness of the afternoon sun shining in for the first time in many days which brings another healthy reminder of God's love, care and concern in my life. He gives me a view of the beauty of nature, a warm home, a loving family and a warm coat to wear outdoors. It is easy to be grateful for the obvious. I tend to take the warm coat for granted.

This brings the reminder of Joseph's coat of many colors. Joseph had many talents, bright-colored gifts of which he was not always aware. He grew in his understanding. He did not accept defeat but followed what was put before him and turned it into good. He was a dreamer and an interpreter of dreams. He did not shy away from possibilities just because they were not understood. He continued to accept the Lord's presence in his life.

As we allow God's presence to envelop us during our quiet time, we can see that life includes many colors. These are not to be judged but followed as what God puts before us, even if we don't always understand why they are there. They offer a radiant, bright and beautiful cloak, given to us through God's love.

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Past Beliefs
by Dusty Reed

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” - Anthony Robbins

Once we learn to listen to inner guidance, it is much easier to listen to others. Listening with the whole self to another person means releasing any thoughts about what we will say next. Focusing on what the other person is saying in this moment can help erase the tendency to compare what they are saying to something from our past. We have tendency to be tracking through our memory maze as they are speaking so we will be ready with a response. We tend to connect with what they are saying through our collection of beliefs and memories.

Can we release past beliefs? “It is not so easy, since they come from actual experience,” you may reply.

“A lady was cutting off the ends of a ham to bake for Christmas. The neighbor watching asked, ‘May I ask why you cut the ends off that ham?’ The lady said, ‘I have no idea; my mom always did that.’ So she asked her mom why she cut the ends off her ham. Her mom said, ‘I have no idea; my mom always did that.’ So the curious lady went to her grandma, determined to get to the bottom of this and asked her. Her grandma said, ‘Why child, I had this small pan when your mom was little and my holiday hams wouldn't fit, so I cut off the ends and made it fit.’” - Author unknown

We have probably all experienced this in some way. We trust in another’s judgment and effortlessly accept it as our truth. In this way, we can see the importance of releasing past beliefs.

There are several myriad sources that offer guidance to help us become aware when memory is taking center stage. Once we are aware, we can make necessary changes.

Past beliefs can bring personal judgment and disallow the rights of personal interpretation by others. We have tendency to feel our beliefs are the only ones that are true for everyone, including ourselves, which gives us a degree of unwillingness to consider change. We often present them in this manner when sharing with others.

Communication can be achieved both my simply willing it so and practice. When we take time to get quiet before we speak or listen to another, we can tune to the root of their thought, to their intention. We can release our memory and experience more than our perception, our interpretation. We can experience our truth from what is extracted from the spirit of the intended meaning.

As a friend once shared, "Total immersion into what others are saying is a form of active meditation. This keeps me centered on that person instead of self. I feel as good after I do this as when I meditate. It is a way of silently celebrating that person with God."

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Common Ground
by Dusty

Where is the common ground
for communication with others?
Understanding isn't always agreeing
but rather, knowing or feeling
where another has been
to bring him where he is.
It is not superfluous or apathetic.
Understanding is finding compassion,
finding the common ground.

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Some sites I recommend:

Intuition Network

Insight Directory

A Course In Miracles

The Intuitive Self

Health Journeys

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It is my joy to share with you that I now have some new rose drawings and some photographs available at art.com! You can view them at Dusty's Roses
And, I have a page with note cards (for sale) with some of my rose drawings. You can check it out by going to Rose Descriptions.
I have been posting nearly all of my drawings that are not displayed elsewhere at Rose Garden I have two galleries there. The other is at Reed's Loft. It has various photographs, other drawings, and notecards available.

My sister-in-spirit, Sunny, has several of her drawings and has added new photos at art.com, too, at Sunny's Art Work

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And, for anyone who enjoys playing at ebay, lots of goodies (records, Christmas decor, books & post cards) are available at Dusty's eBay

You are welcome to forward this newsletter to friends who might be interested! If they would like to subscribe (at no cost), they can write to me at cascade@mahaska.org (with Expansion Encounters as subject). Thanx muchly!

Working toward consideration and to better humanity, we want to encourage free enterprise, free speech. We are Life Now, a spiritual happening on and off the Internet.

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