Navigating Life with a Mona Lisa Smile

by Heather on October 8, 2011 · 9 comments

Roses in bloom in the backyard of my, fingers crossed, soon to be new home.

This month I am walking through a big change in my life:  I am in the process of purchasing a new home.

It’s super exciting, especially as the idea was only birthed last August.  There have been wonderful synchronicities, like the roses blooming in the backyard that matched images on a vision board.  And the home itself is perfect in so many ways.

They say that purchasing a new home in a new city is one of those big life changes that ranks up there with marriage, birthing a child, and changing jobs.  So as exciting as it has been, it has also felt stressful:  navigating the mortgage process, dealing with 2 realtors, negotiating the price and conducting a home inspection. Not to mention realizing I will now have gutters to clean and a backyard to maintain.  The process has been overwhelming at times, especially after 2 years of living very lightly (my things have been in storage as I explored and lived a “laptop lifestyle“)

My biggest learning in navigating this wonderful change is the importance of PEACE.  Finding that core of peace that is always there no matter what is happening around us.  During this past month I have taken lots of long walks, spent time in quiet meditation (not lengthy, but more like 5 minutes the morning and 5 minutes at night getting quiet and connecting), and a lot of time studying ‘A Course in Miracles’  After years, nay, decades, on the Spiritual Buffet line, ACIM is my self-chosen curriculum for my spiritual path.

One of my favorite ACIM teachers is Gary Renard, Author of “Disappearance of the Universe.”  In his audio “Fearless Love” he shares about his experience of seeing the Mona Lisa for the first time when he was in Paris.  Probably like many of us, he “liked” the Mona Lisa, thought it was a good painting, but also wondered “what’s the big deal?”  (C’mon, I know you’ve wondered that yourself…) :)   What he shared really inspired me.

After waiting in line for 30 minutes at the Louvre and finally getting his moment in front of the Mona Lisa,  he looked in her eyes and realized what da Vinci had done:  he had painted an enlightened being.  The confident smile, the peaceful look, and the steadfast gaze: she has the look of being in this world but not of it.

Navigating life with a Mona Lisa smile.

It gave me hope for all of us.  It can happen in this lifetime.  No matter what is going on around you (buying a home, building a business, raising children…) What is your true purpose?  Though my new home is going to be awfully nice to settle into, I also know my true goal is to find my Mona Lisa smile (or get as close as I can to it).

Here is my recipe:

1. Pick a spiritual path.  Your path may be Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Kabbalah, a meditation practice, yoga,  or something else.  But whatever you do, get off the new age, spiritual buffet line and find a path that suits you.  A good path will give you some form of discipline and help you replace life grievances with peace and love.

“An untrained mind can accomplish nothing” ~ACIM

2. Find peace.  Every day, find ways to access your core of peace.  From there you can find guidance for your life, make sound decisions, and take right action.  But first find ways to get peace-filled.  Otherwise directing your life will be like reading a compass while bobbing in a stormy ocean.

3.  Be unattached.  Don’t hold tight to your plans and expectations.  Observe, let go and flow with your life. As I walk through this home purchase I keep letting go, taking next steps, and allowing it to unfold. If it’s going to happen, it will.  The ego loves to thinks it’s running the show and making it all happen.  But a wiser part of yourself knows that this is never true.

Would love your thoughts on finding your ‘Mona Lisa’ smile.  Share in the comments below.

  • Carole Audet

    Congrats on the new house, Heather. Letting go of outcomes is very beneficial advice, although sometimes it’s easier said than done.
    Carole

  • Craig

    Personally, I’d take the Heather Gray smile shown in the picture above over Mona Lisa any day.

    It’s an absolutely beautiful day here in Los Angeles…  Unbelievably clear blue sky, brilliant green color bursting forth from the leaves in the trees nearby with just enough subtle motion to remind me they are here to be known .  Somewhere in the distance there is a single bird whispering its tribute and an airplane thousands of feet above crosses gently reflecting its own bright, clear color and adding  a sign man’s cooperation with nature.

    That peaceful knowing smile of the Mona Lisa reflects what Da Vinci surely knew. That our universe has given us an amazing, magnificent, unlimited existence.  We are surrounded by the beauty of nature (as Mona Lisa is in the portrait) and it provides all of the materials and colors we need to bring forth our own creation, our own portrait, and to place it in and give it back to nature and to the world that has supplied us the materials and colors with with to work.  Bringing forth the magnificence of our creation it is our gift to the world and we gaze back at it with the satisfaction of the knowing that is comes from the gifts we have received that we have then gifted back to the world.  In our satisfaction of our creation a firm, knowing, gentle, peaceful smile crosses our face…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kelly-Satterstrom-LaVine/1344934159 Kelly Satterstrom LaVine

    You’re recipe is right on. Congratulations on your new chapter in life! My favorite ACIM verse: Whenever you are in doubt about what you should do, think of His Presence in you, and tell yourself this, and only this: He leadeth me and knows the way, which I know not. Yet He will never keep from me what He would have me learn. And so I trust Him to communicate to me all that He knows for me.

  • http://www.soulfilledlife.com Heather Gray

    Hi Kelly! 
    Thanks for your congratulations and for sharing your favorite ACIM verse. 

    “Trust” is the first characteristic listed n the “Manual for Teachers.”  That is one of my favorite sections of the big blue book.  I like how it lists out the levels of trust that you go through on the path:  undoing, sorting out, relinquishment, settling down, unsettling (ha, just when you thought you’d “figured it out” you learn instead to lay all judgement aside), and finally achievement (where you are able to ‘trust’ no matter what is going on about you).  It’s a journey….

  • http://www.soulfilledlife.com Heather Gray

    Craig — thanks for bringing yourself and the Los Angeles sunshine to the blog! 
    Reading your note put a smile on my face.

  • http://www.soulfilledlife.com Heather Gray

    Carole — so true.  Truth can be “simple” but does not mean it is “easy.”  If it were we’d all be sitting around with our mona lisa smiles no matter what was appearing to happen. 

    Blessings to you on the journey.

  • Craig Hamilton

    That is exactly it!  Trust…..no matter what is going on around you.  Know the part of you that is the core you, the part of you that can’t be denied,the part of you that can’t be stopped, the true you that you have no say about, the you that is God in action.  Trust that part of you to unfold.  That Truth of you is God’s creation.  It must unfold.  Revel in the joyous realization of the miraculous creation and be a participant in your own magnificent unfolding.  Bring forward the new idea…Trust it.  You know what it is…and you know that what is going on around you, simple remnants of the past, has absolutely nothing to do with the bursting forth of The You in every moment.  It bursts forth as you close escrow on your new home and it bursts forth as the flowers bloom in your new back yard.   Thank you Heather for your insights and my thanks, too, to Michael Beckwith and Rickie for the drum beat of reminders.

  • http://www.soulfilledlife.com Heather Gray

    Thanks Craig!   Love Michael Beckwith. Do you attend Agape?  I’ve been once when I was out your way…amazing.

  • Craig Hamilton

    I go to Agape once in a while & enjoy it every time.  My love, Sherry, is a singer/actress/producer and has gone to Agape for years and has performed with Rickie at an event San Francisco and we ran into Michael and Rickie at an event in Los Angeles recently and they reignited the fire of my soul…  Check out Sherry’s show, Lilly’s Light on Netflix and itunes.  It’s a live action musical adventure for the entire family.  It has really beautiful music and is set in an enchanted light house foster-home.  Through it, she brings positive messages to the world. We also created a 501 (c) (3) charity, Lilly’s Fostering Hearts, to bring awareness to the issues surrounding foster care.  She’s looking forward to stopping by the Soul-Filled Cafe soon….

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