Saturday morning came a wee bit overcast, yet filled with the sense of promise a grey glow often carries. I woke up with a song in my heart and some minor grumblings in my head. “Perfect!” I thought. “The perfect Spa Day opportunity: a lightness of heart, and a touch of crankiness.” Spirit must be setting things up for me to make choices about my day. Since I had the assignment of reporting the Spiritual Spa Day, I already had a theme to guide me: Blessings.
If anyone personifies blessings, it’s John Morton. John often shares a definition of blessing as “greater good.” That is what I experience with John. Whenever he is around, whenever he has had a hand in something — in some way, greater good results. Knowing we were going to have a whole day with John at Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens for John’s Spiritual Spa Day called “You are the Blessings,” I was filled with a sense of wonder at the blessings possible for everyone. And word was out that it was also John’s birthday, and who knew what might be in store with that?
The Spa Day began with a warm welcome by MC Leigh Taylor-Young. Leigh helped us settle in with the friendly authenticity of her bright smile, twinkling eyes, and easy laughter. From the start, she welcomed everyone as family, and it felt like Spirit wrapped a soft blanket of energy around all of us. And with a Cheshire cat’s smile, Leigh also hinted at some surprises in store for the day. All of this was adding to some very nice “happy birthday” energy, indeed.
Leigh introduced John as the “juice” and true blessing for the day, noting the quality of peace he brings and how much his presence touches to and expands that quality in anyone he’s with. Sure enough, as soon as John took to the stage, peace came present. With peaceful, easy humor John joked with us about his inability to keep his birthday a secret, and then took us right into the Light. We called in the Light together, chanted Ani Hu, and moved into the day’s workshop.
We watched some of John’s favorite video excerpts — two Moments of Peace, one featuring John’s daughter Claire and another with son Zane, and a meditative excerpt with our beloved John-Roger, “This Is Love.” (Available on the Living Love DVD).
Throughout the morning, John shared numerous keys to support us in experiencing more of the blessings in our lives, and more of how we ourselves are blessings, how we can know each other as blessings: Being open (that’s a big one). Claiming ourselves as blessings. Using everything for our learning and upliftment (because that is what everything is for). Looking to Spirit, beyond this world and any negativity or disturbance we may experience. Move our awareness, and allow our awareness to be moved by Spirit. Surrender. Present ourselves to Spirit, as a feather to the wind. Be Light bearers. Bring Light and a focus of peace and understanding wherever we go — to our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods. And no matter what, we can always grow in loving. There is always room to expand there.
We also had the opportunity to exercise ourselves to greater blessings and peace by doing an exercise in groups of four. The room transformed as we explored situations we find challenging, seeing how blessings were present, how we are blessings in the situations we face, and how we can bless each other by sharing how we see each other as blessings.
This set the stage perfectly to move to the joyful blessing of brunch. By this time, the sun had come out in full southern California butterscotch yellow, and with it a buffet parade of delectables: pancakes sans wheat, gluten or dairy; scrambled eggs as you like them: plain, or with cheddar cheese; chicken sausages; steamed broccoli (oh-so-green and inviting); hearty roasted red & yellow potatoes; a baby spinach salad with caramelized hazelnuts (!), pomegranate seeds (!!) and loganberry vinaigrette (!!!), and a fruit salad bursting with color and flavors.
And as if all of this weren’t enough to make you dizzy with blessings…Yes, you guessed it: birthday cake for John! We sang, we videotaped, we cut the cake, we shared in birthday blessings. Demonstrating the ever-present generosity of Spirit that is with him, John invited each of us to pause and make a wish/ask a blessing with him. A person could almost forget all about the cake in the midst of the loving energy that was present and pouring out among us. OK: almost. It was one grand cake, too: a beautiful carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (is there any other way??) made by Prana chefs Claudie and Guillaume Botte and lettered by Carol Jones, the lovely program director for Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens. In a word, w-o-w!
And there was still more to come. After reconvening from our meal, John opened the floor to a tender Q&A session with participants. It was truly a “love us tender” experience, with the Traveler energy swirling in and through and among us, bringing greater Light, peace, loving and joy wherever it moved. One of the things that especially stood out for me was when John shared about an experience in his life where he realized life is what you make it. I remembered the first time I had experienced John share about that, in an article in the print edition of the New Day Herald that I had read shortly after I began studying Soul Awareness Discourses with Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA). It touched me as deeply on this Spa Day as it had then, and it brought me a smile in realizing that we each had, in some way, chosen to make our lives more about blessings by coming together and being receptive to John, the Traveler’s loving, and the Spirit so present with us.
After the Q&A session, we had the opportunity to enjoy the blessings of Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens by walking the labyrinth and visiting the meditation gardens that are here. It was so lovely. The day closed gently from that point, with each of us having our personal, unique, and perfect experience of this blessing as we met Spirit through the movement of our bodies and intention of our hearts. As people completed their time with the labyrinth and gardens, they seemed to float back up toward the house, joining again in the seminar rooms and dining area, sharing loving, laughter, and oh yes, many blessings.
Thank you, John, for sharing blessings with us. Thank you for sharing the blessing of your birthday with us. Thank you to everyone who helped make the day so delicious, beautiful, lovely, successful and great. Thank you God. Thank you for the blessing of you as you read this here and now.
You are the blessing.
We are the blessing.
God bless us all.
Baruch Bashan (which means The Blessings Already Are)
To experience even more of the blessings John Morton shared, please check out his beautiful, poetically inspiring book The Blessings Already Are. Please also stay tuned for the upcoming release of John’s next book, “You Are the Blessing.”
Join us at Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens for the holidays:
Thanksgiving Dinner Thursday Nov 22–Open to MSIAers, family and friends
Christmas Tree Trimming Party and Kids’ Craft Workshop–Sunday, Dec 2–Open to MSIAers, family and friends
New Year’s Sacred Tones Evening, Monday, Dec 31, 8 p.m. Open to Everyone
Contact the Registrar: Marina Von Wormer 323-737-4055 ext 137 or email registrar@peacelabyrinth.org.
For more information about Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens, visit www.peacelabyrinth.org.
