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Chief Joseph and I wrote this article years ago, at a time when I was questioning whether I wanted to continue working with him. It was also a time of questioning other choices I'd made in my life. I was feeling lost and alone.

Here's what I wrote, followed by Joseph's response. (His response is longer than typical, but it's one of my favorites of his messages. I hope you like it too.)

Spirit is always speaking to all of us. It's just that we've become so immersed in life on earth, we've closed off our lines of communication to Home -- to the God we all are.

This past year has been a most fascinating and challenging one for me. As I look back on it from the perspective of "hindsight," I realize how much I've grown -- or, I should say, how much I've remembered. I'd like to briefly share with you part of my journey this past year. Perhaps something in my sharing will touch a chord deep within you -- and help you, if only in some small way, along your path of remembering.

I'd been "floundering around" late last year wondering where my path was taking me -- where this work with Joseph was leading. Sometimes, I felt I was making no progress at all.

One late afternoon between last Christmas and New Year's, I was waiting at the Sacramento airport for a flight. I had several hours to wait -- so I decided to take a walk around the airport.

I walked out to the edge of the parking lot. There, in the shadows of the setting winter sun, I saw a large truck with a company name and address painted on its side. The address was Walla Walla, Washington. Walla Walla is just north of Joseph's ancestral homeland in the Wallowa Valley of Oregon.

Was Spirit speaking to me?

I was deep in thought as I walked farther out toward the edge of the airport. Suddenly, I saw a beautiful white feather floating in the air about ten feet in front of me. As I walked toward it, it drifted and danced in the chilly late-afternoon breeze. I was several feet away when it magically took on the shape of a beautiful white dove. The dove stood still in midair as I started to reach out for it. Then, just a couple of feet from me and right before my eyes, it vanished! Nothing was there -- in the air or on the ground.

Was Spirit speaking to me?

I still don't fully understand those two events -- with my mind, that is. Though my heart understands. But what my mind does know is those two events triggered within me a renewed process of growth, of remembering. And that process has led to my making a full commitment to my work with Joseph, something I'd never done before.

The best part is all this has led me to a deeper, far more intimate bond with my higher self. That bond has brought me into a state of joy I've never known in this lifetime. I still have my challenges to deal with, as we all do. But now -- even in the midst of those challenges, even in the depths of the sadness I've sometimes felt lately -- my life is easy and joyful. Magical even. Magic is all around us. We only need to look and listen for it.

Was Spirit speaking to me in the fading light of that cold winter's day in Sacramento? I'd like to think so.

Here's Chief Joseph.

 
Chief Joseph

Just be -- enjoy your be-ing. Focus on that instead of do-ing. You don't have to do anything in this life. Your only mission is to simply be.

Immerse yourselves in your be-ing. Then, and only then, can you effectively do anything. Then, and only then, will you find yourselves empowered to do everything.

Your actions flow from who you are. It's a matter of putting the horse before the cart, if you will. Once you have fully remembered you are God, you will know what to do. You will know your life's work. You will know your life's partner. And it will all flow easily and effortlessly.

The key is simple: Just be. Equally important is for you to totally immerse yourselves in the joy of being God.

Spirit speaks to you often. Yet you do not hear because you're not listening, you're not watching. The signs are all around you. They come to you in ways expected and unexpected. But you'll never hear or see them unless you remain constantly watchful.

This is the single most important task you can do in this incarnation -- be constantly watchful for the signs of Spirit speaking to you. As you persist in your watchfulness, you will find Spirit speaks to you as easily and clearly as your friends and family on the earth plane.

And what is Spirit saying when it speaks to you?

It is saying many things. But the "common thread," if you will, running through the fabric of Spiritspeak is this: Remember, remember, remember!

Spirit has many messages for you. And it speaks to you in ways specifically "tailored," if you will, to the specific being -- the human being, that is -- you have chosen to become for a while.

Think of your humanness as a costume you have donned for a bit. This thing you call life is really nothing more than a costume party! A party you, as your higher self, chose to attend. And just what are parties? Why, they're fun! Or, at least, they're supposed to be. And so too is your life on earth, in your exquisitely designed human costume, supposed to be fun.

You, as human beings, take yourselves entirely too seriously. You have been so successful at immersing yourselves in the illusion of the earth party, you have forgotten you didn't come here to stay. And you didn't come here to be miserable and joyless. That's not what parties are all about.

You came here because your nature, as God, is playful and creative and joyful. As you left Home the last time before incarnating in your current life, you asked your loved ones in Spirit -- your angels, teachers, and guides -- to be ever watchful over you as you bravely ventured down the trail of tears.

You, as your higher selves, knew this life could indeed be a trail of tears. Or it could be a joyful path, a time of happy reunion with those of your loved ones who also chose to be pioneers on the wild frontier of Planet Earth.

And so, as you left Home with this great spirit of adventure burning in your heart, you asked those who remained "behind" at Home to guide you if you should ever become too deeply immersed in the illusion.

Most of you have become so deeply immersed, you have forgotten much of what you knew, including the fact life is just one big party. You have also forgotten the love, the wisdom, the power you once knew -- the love, the wisdom, the power you are.

You are love incarnate, nothing more, nothing less. You are God. You are All That Is.

And so, as you've become "fully engaged," shall we say, in the business and busy-ness of human life, you've allowed fear to have its way with you. Fear tells you:

"Do this - do that and you will be safe. Think this - think that. Conform to your culture. Honor thy father and mother, and any other authorities who happen to be in your life. Honor them. Please them. Do what they say. For, after all, they know what's best for you."

Fear's voice is most insistent, and your mind loves the sound of fear's voice.

This fear-filled environment is the one many of you, as humans, grew to adulthood in. And, of course, this is a most stressful environment. You can see that stress manifested all around -- and perhaps within -- yourselves. Every day, your newspapers and television screens are filled with these manifestations of fear. And so the stress, and the fear, continue in a seemingly self-perpetuating process, one that can feel almost impossible to break free from.

And yet it is critical, at this point in your personal evolution and in your planet's evolution, for you to break free from the self-imposed bonds of fear. When you begin to break free, and when you finally gain full freedom, you will marvel at the way you found so much false comfort and security in the misery of your jail cell. Yet all the time you were imprisoned, you had the key to your cell door in your hand. You had just forgotten you were given the key before you left Home.

So how do you break free of your culture, your authorities, your jail cells? Well, you begin by listening to Spirit speaking to you. And how does Spirit speak to you? In myriad ways. You are awake and aware, or you would not be reading these words of mine. And yet, though you are awake and aware, you sometimes seem to struggle to simply get through just one 24-hour day. It does not have to be so. Spirit is speaking to you constantly. And I mean that literally -- constantly!

It is critical for you to fully remember who you are, to remember your divine heritage, as you move into the new millennium and beyond. It is critical for you to move forward with joy and peace and love. Sure, you can also move forward through struggle and pain. But you don't have to do it that way. It's your choice.

So we come back to the ways in which Spirit speaks to you. It speaks to you in many ways, as we said a few moments ago. But it speaks to you most clearly through your feelings, through your heart. Whenever you are feeling joyful and positive and powerful and loving, it is those times Spirit is speaking to you most clearly. Whatever feels joyful, positive, powerful, loving is Spirit simply reminding you of who you are.

Your soul, your higher self is always in a state of perfect bliss, perfect joy, perfect peace. It is a state somewhat like a deep meditative state, but with total awareness of your total reality and existence in the moment. If you are fully present in the moment with love, there can be no pain, no sorrow. There can be nothing but total peace, the peace, as your bible says, that surpasses all understanding.

When you achieve that state of bliss and ecstasy -- and you can fully achieve it while still incarnated -- you will have once again become one with Spirit.

Then when Spirit speaks to you again, you will hear only the sound of your own voice.

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This Week's Newsletter Reflection Questions

News Updates

1)  Hans Brockhuis, whom some of you know, has been a dear friend of Chief Joseph's and mine for many years. Hans publishes a wonderful spiritual newsletter called "Running Fox." He occasionally publishes some of Chief Joseph's messages at his website on a page called "Messages from the other world." Or, for those of you who speak Dutch, "Boodschappen uit de andere wereld."

So if you do speak Dutch, you can read the Chief Joseph messages Hans publishes in Dutch. Here's where to go:
http://www.runningfox.nl/Speciaal/boodschapindex.html

2)  We're now doing regular podcasts with Chief Joseph. You can now listen to or download them free.

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