May 2005  -  "A Touch of Grace" from Heather O'Hara

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* Letter from Heather O'Hara

* Inspiring Quotes

* Guest Poem: "The Guy in the Glass"

* Article: "It's Not the Room, It's the View"

* More Inspiring Quotes

* Poem: "Nothing Is by Chance"

* A Little Magic and a Touch of Grace

* A Very Special Email

* Resources, Recommendations and Comments

* The Wisdom of AXIS: Something to Think About

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------LETTER FROM HEATHER O’HARA

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Dear Reader...

 

I would like to take a moment to welcome you and to thank you for joining me in creating a global community of people helping people. By rising to a new level of awareness, not only do we enhance our own existence, but we also inspire others to choose authentic, empowering and extraordinary lives.

 

I like to think of Quantum-Grace as an equal evolutionary opportunity. An opportunity which includes not only you and I, but all people of all faiths, of every gender, age and race―from all corners of the world.

 

I trust you will agree that, more than ever before, we need each other to build the bridges, steady the ladders and create the pathways that will take us to a higher level of awareness and understanding.

 

It is my belief that when we join together and reach toward a common goal, regardless of our seeming differences, there is every possibility that we will succeed in finding a touch of grace within ourselves, as well as in everyone around us.

 

As you know, Quantum-Grace.com is about our ever- changing lives and the opportunities for growth that arise through these changes. It is about living consciously, with integrity and grace, as we discover the greatness within ourselves.

 

Like a bridge from wherever you are to wherever you are going, the purpose of Quantum-Grace.com is to encourage and inspire you to travel reverently and consciously as you evolve into a higher level of awareness.

 

I believe that when we view change as the perfection of the Universe, and when we choose to accept change as the education of our hearts and the evolution of our souls, we hold the key to an enlightened and powerful future.

 

Change is the Universal continuum—it never stops, for if it did, we would all cease to exist. The only way life can replenish itself and continue to nourish itself is to blend with the harmony of change.

 

Like the mysterious wind, change can be terrifying or wonderful and, quite often, it can be both at the same time. No two people will ever feel the same way about a life-changing experience because no two people process the experience in exactly the same way. But know this: you are exactly where you are supposed to be, at all times, and I am honored that you have chosen to be here where change is recognized and valued as the divine, life sustaining energy that it truly is.

 

When we help each other, we automatically help ourselves. Whether we are healing, transforming, transitioning, rethinking our direction or enrolling in our first day of flight school, we are all changing, learning and growing and we are all doing it the best way we know how.

 

You are to be congratulated. Extraordinary change is the evolutionary progress and heroic choice of extraordinary people, people willing to go far beyond common boundaries and trust the invincible power within themselves to move forward and up. And remarkably, it is the voice of your own soul that will help you understand that what feels like a quantum leap, or a sudden and significant change, is the result of thousands and thousands of tiny changes, often invisible to the human eye.

 

You are already everything grace is made of. Have fun with that knowledge! All it takes is an open mind, an open heart and the willingness to receive what is already yours.

 

There is nothing to fear. You are never alone, nor will you ever be. I am here to encourage, inspire and cheer you on while we learn and grow together in love and understanding.

 

“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Thank you again for joining me in an adventure that promises to be as remarkable as you are.

 

Love & Light, ...Heather O'Hara

 

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INSPIRING QUOTES

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“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” ― Alan Watts

 

“The most powerful agent of growth and transformation is something much more basic than any technique: a change of heart. ― John Welwood

 

“You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.” ― Jim Rohn

 

“You have the power in the present moment to change limiting beliefs and consciously plant the seeds for the future of your choosing. As you change your mind, you change your experience.” ― Serge Kahili King

 

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POEM: “THE GUY IN THE GLASS”

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by Dale Wimbrow

 

 

The Guy in the Glass

 

When you get what you want in your struggle for self

And the world makes you king for a day

Just go to the mirror and look at yourself

And see what that man has to say.

 

For it isn’t your Father or Mother or wife

Whose judgment upon you must pass.

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

 

Some people may call you a straight-shooting chum

And call you a wonderful guy,

But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum

If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

 

He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest

For he’s with you clear to the end,

And you have passed your most dangerous test

If the man in the glass is your friend.

 

You may face the whole world down the pathway of life

And get pats on the back when you pass,

But your final reward will be heartache and strife

If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

 

― Dale Wimbrow

 

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ARTICLE: “IT’S NOT THE ROOM, IT’S THE VIEW”

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by Heather K. O'Hara

 

 

It’s Not the Room, It’s the View

 An article by Heather K. O’Hara

 

It has been said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. And, as much as I believe this is true, I also believe that every window has two vantage points—one for seeing in and one for seeing out.

 

What is most familiar to a soul is its own image, and it is constantly drawn to what it recognizes as itself. When our eyes stop to gaze upon something magnificent, when the view is so magical that it takes our breath away, it is our soul reaching out to touch the miracle of its own reflection.

 

I have been asked many times why I have chosen to fill the pages of my website, Quantum-Grace.com, with nature photography. The answer is simple. Focusing on the beauty around us is a gentle reminder of what we are made of. From the smallest dewdrop to the largest mountain, the beauty that surrounds us is who we really are, and it is our choice to see it or not to see it.

 

If it is majestic mountains our eyes are drawn to, we are being reminded of our own enduring strength. If it is the center of a rose, we are reminded of our tenderness and innocence. Oceans reflect the power, rhythm and grace of our eternal selves, and a drop of rain, our simplicity.

 

We are often encouraged to close our eyes and look within. This is something I do myself, every day. But in a world sometimes overflowing with persuasive randomity and magnetic emotion, it is not always possible to maintain the peacefulness of inner vision. The Universe is very practical, however, and sometimes our greatest revelations come when we open our eyes and see all that we are made of right before us.

 

Free will is having the right to choose what to focus on and what not to focus on, and your choice of focus is your rite of passage. It’s as if we are each holding a camera, and while looking out through a tiny “eye,” we have the freedom to focus on whatever brings us joy.

 

You don’t have to focus on what doesn’t make you happy―just move the camera a little to the left or a little to the right until you find the awe-inspiring landscape of your soul. These are the pictures worth a thousand words, because these are the pictures of your own integrity and beauty, and they’re the only ones worth keeping.

 

On a daily basis, we are surrounded with the energy of millions of people going millions of places doing millions of things. If we allow ourselves to get caught up in “their pictures,” we are allowing others to determine what we should be looking at and focusing on, and we miss the magical progress of our own natural evolution.

 

Nature is the mirror of humanity and it reflects the affirmations of the soul. Within nature are found the same qualities that our own spiritual essence holds. The qualities of strength, courage, passion, patience, trust and love are within us, as well as outside us. And it is up to us to notice them.

 

We need not hurry, as there is no urgency in evolution; and we need not scale Mt. Everest to claim a view of our own endless magnificence. It takes only a moment to look out a window and find the bluest edge of the sky. Honor yourself today and immerse yourself in what you are made of—remembering that it’s not the room you are in that determines who you are, but the exquisite view upon which you focus that is you.

 

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MORE INSPIRING QUOTES

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“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.” ― Karen Kaiser Clark

 

“To change is to be vulnerable. And to be vulnerable is to be alive.” ― Alexis DeVeaux

 

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” ― Henri Bergson

 

“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.” ― Abraham Maslow

 

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POEM: “NOTHING IS BY CHANCE”

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by Heather K. O’Hara

 

 

Nothing Is by Chance

 

We are not pieces of artist’s chalk

scattered to the edge of an empty slate,

rolling randomly here and there.

We are God’s brilliance, ...

unique, whole and divine,

and the lifescapes we design for ourselves

are rendered precisely into the universal masterpiece

by the magical hands of perfect order.

 

We hold tightly the dreams we are meant to carry, ...

we travel in the directions we are meant to go,

we fall when it is time for us to fall,

and we lift ourselves up

when it is time for us to stand again.

 

The magic is not in the changing

of an already perfect Universe,

but in the trusting of a Universe,

which is perfect and changing all the time.

 

Should we never dream in complex patterns of gray,

should we not explore both shallowness and depth, ...

we would never touch the truth of our own souls.

Should we not travel a crowded road,

we might never be inspired to blaze a new

and extraordinary trail of awe, ...

and should we never fall,

we would miss the powerful experience

of getting up and moving on.

 

The greatest of all things

is the discovery of life by way of perspective, ...

knowing the magic we seek is already here,

trusting that perfection is ours to behold,

changing as we change,

and knowing what we look for

will always be exactly what we find.

 

― Heather K. O’Hara

     from AXIS, The Song in the Center of the Soul

 

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A LITTLE MAGIC AND A TOUCH OF GRACE - TIPS FOR LIVING AUTHENTICALLY

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by Heather K. O’Hara

 

 

As Dan Millman, author of The Peaceful Warrior says, “To be authentic literally means to be your own author.” And I’d like to add that being your own author means you have the freedom to write your own story.

 

Actually, you’ve been writing it all along, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. And, ironically, it’s the “sometimes not” that we all need to become more aware of if we want to change our current story or create a new one.

 

As I became more and more aware of the Universal laws and how they work, I began to see things about my own story that I had never seen before. It was these surprising observations that led me to the realization that “awareness” is the road map to conscious living, and that it has nothing to do with “seeking” and everything to do with “seeing.”

 

It is impossible to change something that you aren’t aware exists in the first place. So it is our responsibility to become more aware of what we are thinking, saying and doing at all times. Every word, every action, every thought is part of the grand novel of your life. And managing what you put out into the world is managing what the world returns to you.

 

Awareness happens in small steps. You have to listen. You have to listen carefully to your own words and your own thoughts. Whenever we let ourselves get carried away by negative speech and negative thinking, we have just added another not-so-wonderful chapter to our book.

 

I believe the best starting point for change is to begin by focusing on what we say. It takes conscious effort to do this, but it is a good first step in self-correction. Once you become aware of what you are saying, it seems that it becomes easier to take note of what you are thinking. It’s almost as if when you grab hold of one of your own words, you can then follow it back and ask yourself, “What thought would make me say that?”

 

I began doing this by writing down the things I said that I could easily identify as being “negative.” I then replaced these negative sayings with more positive words. It didn’t take long for me to discover that most of what I was saying, even in a humorous way, was not supporting the life I wished to create for myself.

 

For years, one of my favorite sayings was “It’s to die for!” Just think about that saying, popular as it is, innocently as it is spoken―it is an enormously negative saying! I have since replaced that saying with “It’s to live for!” because my new story is about a life well lived, not about a life of loss.

 

Taking the time to identify the thoughts and sayings that permeate our lives is only a first step, but it is an important one in becoming aware of what we release into the world, and, consequently, what comes back to us.

 

Try making your own list and see what happens. As you begin to identify your negative thought and speech patterns, you will learn a tremendous amount about yourself. And soon, every time you begin to think or say something that is negative or that does not support the story you want your life to be about, you will begin to replace it with something more positive. You will be amazed at the benefits of doing this. Suddenly, you will become very aware of your story as it is now and your story as it could be.

 

It takes some practice, but you can do it. If you slip and find yourself thinking or saying things that aren’t conducive to the positive life changes you are making, don’t beat yourself up. Stop and congratulate yourself for being aware of what you are doing and “intend” to correct it. Just by becoming aware of the things you’d like to correct means that you are already one level of awareness higher than you were before you began consciously creating your own story.

 

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A VERY SPECIAL EMAIL

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I would like to share the following email with you, as it poses a question I am often asked. Because of its personal and confidential nature I have excluded the details, but with Sherry’s permission, I would like to share part of the first paragraph with you:

 

Hi Heather...

 

Thank you so much for writing back to me, I can only imagine how busy you must be. As for myself, I have been lucky to have such a wonderful family to support me while I go through the most difficult time of my life. I understand the part about each one taking their own time to heal...but does the pain ever go away? As I sit here and type this to you, my heart aches and the tears flow freely. I know you know nothing of my situation, but it is very similar to yours...

 

Sherry B. (Langley, B.C.)

 

 

Hi Sherry, ...

 

Yes, the pain does go away when you open your heart and allow yourself to feel and to heal. And because you are writing to me in such an honest and open way, I know that your heart is willing to do what it has to do for you to begin healing.

 

The truth about pain is that it hurts, and sometimes it hurts more before it begins to hurt less. Pain has a way of taking its time, because its purpose is to take us all the way back to our forgotten Selves and help us reconnect with the truth of who we really are. Be gentle with yourself and take all the time you need.

 

Pain has a very bold and powerful voice because it has a very, very important message for you. The more you try to push it away or ignore it, the louder it will speak. Listen to it, feel it and then you will be able to heal it. It is a delicate process, but if you see it through, the secret of “why” will always be revealed to you.

 

Your tears are the tears of a hero. Let them flow freely―it wasn’t until I learned to cry that I truly began to heal. Let the past become the river that carries you to a new and better life. You deserve to be cherished and loved, but you must be willing to let the pain out so that you can allow real love in. Pain is the mask of fear, and fear and love cannot exist in the same space.

 

I promise you, no matter how long it takes, something new and wonderful always emerges from a heart that is courageous enough to feel. Just give yourself time and ask for help when you need it.

 

A closed heart is a heart that suffers in loneliness for a very, very long time. An open heart is a heart that feels and heals, and then moves on to a higher level of understanding.

 

Reaching out to others is an action of self-love. It is the wisdom of your soul helping you to allow love in. And as you let yourself be loved by those who truly care about you, not only will you begin to value, honor and love yourself, you will also begin to understand the reasons for your experience.

 

You cannot conquer pain. You can only allow it to move through you, as it shows you the parts of yourself that need your attention, recognition and love. And pain, although most of us tend to question its presence in our lives, is its own answer as to why these things must come from you before they can come from someone else.

 

Pain is not your enemy. It is instead, your teacher―and it will always leave you with a gift of tremendous value if you allow it to.

 

Don’t give up. A hero is not someone who never falls, but one who gets up every time he falls and keeps going. We are spiritual beings who sometimes have extremely challenging human experiences, and many of us traverse those experiences with tears in our eyes. It’s okay to cry.

 

The secret is to keep on going, whether we can see through our own tears or not.

 

If we keep going, we will find that remarkable place inside ourselves that knows pain was never intended to be a path of suffering, but a path of learning―a path that will lead you into love, should you choose to go. As Debbie Ford says, “Our pain can be our greatest teacher. It leads us to places we’d never go on our own.”

 

Take one step at a time and celebrate your progress as you go. Give your attention not to the distance before you, but to the distance you have already traveled.

 

Focus on honoring and loving yourself and you will come to know “real” love, the good stuff; the kind that doesn’t leave you or deceive you, because you will be attracting what you have found within yourself, ...the gift of true love, ...the only kind of love worth having.

 

My thoughts and my love are with you, Sherry, ...know that you are never alone.

 

Love & Light, ...Heather O’Hara

 

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RESOURCES, RECOMMENDATIONS AND COMMENTS

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 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

 

 As you may already know, AXIS, The Song in the Center of the Soul will begin shipping in just a few weeks. I’m happy to say that the pre-release sales have been fantastic, but I don’t want you to miss out on the special pricing.

 

If you’ve not yet ordered, but would like to have a first-print, autographed, hardcover edition of this beautiful and inspiring book, you can still order at the discounted price of only $21.00 (a 22% savings) until May 30th. http://www.quantum-grace.com/books2.htm

 

**Don’t forget―you will also receive a free, autographed, 8x10 quality print of one of my favorite poems, LOVE STORY, as my special gift to you.

 

 

SPECIAL REQUEST:

 

Please feel free to email me personal stories, poetry or inspirational material you have written. Everything I receive will be considered for publication in the Quantum-Grace.com newsletter:  hkohara@quantum-grace.com

 

 

NEW ARTICLES:

 

I have recently added two new articles to the Quantum-Grace.com Articles Section, and I believe everyone will benefit by reading them both:

 

“Passion and Soulfulness” by Nathaniel Branden:

http://www.quantum-grace.com/PassionandSoulfulness.htm

 

“Listening to your Inner Self” by John Harricharan

 http://www.quantum-grace.com/Innerself.htm

 

 

GREAT BOOKS I READ IN APRIL THAT I HIGHLY RECOMMEND:

 

 

Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks

 

The Attractor Factor by Joe Vitale

 

The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary R Renard

 

For your convenience you can order these titles from Amazon.com directly through the Quantum-Grace.com Resource Section:

www.Quantum-Grace.com/resources.htm

 

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THE WISDOM OF AXIS

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Something to think about...

 

 

“The law of destination is straightforward and simple:

 It is not possible to arrive

 where we never take the time to go.”

 

― Heather K. O’Hara

from AXIS, The Song in the Center of the Soul

 

 

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In closing, I would like to thank you again for helping Quantum-Grace.com become the highest example of  people helping  people. Only by  inspiring each other, encouraging each other and supporting each other will we evolve into a new and higher level of awareness.

 

Your good energy and positive thoughts are not only the best gifts you can give yourself, but also the greatest contribution you can make to the spiritual evolution of humanity. Know you are important and that you count in a very big way. Live your love, trust your joy―stand up and say your name...

 

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

—Gandhi

 

May you walk with grace, my good friend.

 

Namaste, ...Heather O'Hara

 

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“A Touch of Grace” is a Heather K. O’Hara worldwide publication brought to you by Quantum-Grace.com where healing, insight, transformation, awareness and flight are the treasured expressions of a life well lived; brilliantly, authentically and overflowing with Quantum Grace.

 

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http://www.quantum-grace.com/news2.htm

 

IT’S INSPIRING.    IT’S EMPOWERING.    AND IT’S FREE.

 

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Note: I never sell, trade, rent or give away your email address to others. Your information is always kept in the strictest confidence. That’s a promise you can count on.

 

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Copyright 2005, Heather K. O’Hara. All rights reserved. www.Quantum-Grace.com

www.hkohara.com