Linda McPharlin's portfolio

I was lying in bed last nigh thinking about the words "hole" and "whole" and how interesting it is that they sound the same but are so different in meaning. Being "whole" represents a feeling or state of contentment and completeness...a perfection of sorts. It needs no thing. It lacks only craving. It is peace. However, feeling like there is a "hole" in our lives, suggests that something is missing, that we are incomplete or imperfect. It needs some thing. It is overrun with craving. It is unrest.    We vacillate between these two states in life. Feeling as though there is a "hole" in our lives or within our selves, we search for something to fill it up. We search for something to fill the "hole" to make us feel "whole." We find a t...

It is truly a wonderful thing when you find a perfect pair of jeans. You know what I mean? The ones that fit you so perfectly, that hug your body in the right areas, but not too tightly. They feel like you are truly in your own element when you wear them. It is almost as if they are part of your body. With these jeans adorning your lower half, you look and feel great. Only such a wonderful experience can make us search so hard. Jeans such as these are not usually an easy find. Entering a dressing room with an armful of jeans, you spend the next half hour trying on pair after pair. These don't quite fit right. These are obviously not the right size. Yikes! These feel okay, but the color of them is somehow strange. You think this pair w...

I don't know about you, but I am a devout lover of words, and it has always been important to me to find and use the perfect word when I am trying to define and/or express a particular idea or concept. Many times I find that there is no 'perfect' word or even combination of words, simply because the concept or idea is so much more than words can express. Still, since words are the most acceptable way of communication, I must try. I woke up today thinking about the word "want" and how lately when I use it, it just doesn't seem like the right word to use. My consciousness seems to resist using that word. This is a recent development for me. As I thought more about it, what came to me is that a better word is "choose" whenever I am inclin...

March 8, 2011, is International Women’s Day. For the last 100 years, this has been a day for celebrating women around the world and the progress that women have made socially and economically. Having grown up in the United States, I can look back and see the progress that women have made in terms of reaching higher levels of equality and being more empowered, but still it seems as though women are not yet considered equals with men. This is even more evident in other countries around the world. So I wonder, with all of our industrial and technological advances, education and conscious growth, why can’t we overcome this issue? I think the most important point that we keep on missing both with women’s rights and equality issues in gener...

I've been reading "the Book of Secrets" by Deepak Chopra. In a chapter entitled, "Evil is not your enemy" which is a chapter about the 'shadow' side of us all, he talks about something he calls the gap between body and mind. This is the place of interpretation or what I like to think of as story-telling. It happens after something happens to us and before we react to it. It is essentially the space of time when you decide what something means. For example, you are sitting alone in your home at night and you hear a noise in your backyard. Your mind may decide it is an intruder planning to break into your home or it may choose to believe that it is just the wind blowing your lawn furniture around. Though the stimulus is the same, dependi...

In my last journal, "Who Cares What People Think?", I discussed how caring too much about what other people think of us can be destructive. Today it occurs to me that the same can be said of investing too much in what we think of ourselves. CS member, Edna Poole, wrote in my soul space: "What I think is not important, all that brought me for forty years is lots and lots of pain regret and sorrow. If I speak only what I think my voice is second hand. Truth is not a thinking process. Truth is before thoughts appeared along with time and calenders and not enough and too late on and on and on..." This is so profound because so many of us will search our minds (past memories, thoughts, future images, etc.) to figure out who we really are....

Caring about what people think can make you a very powerful person. Caring about what people think OF YOU can quickly take that power away. This is the conclusion I came to tonight after some deep soul searching that has gone on inside of me for the last few weeks. My journey in trying to figure out who I really am and what I can do to best serve humanity has lead me to this very valuable truth that explains the walls I keep running into in  my life.  Many times I have repeated this cycle: Get a great idea, work intensely on that idea, share it with a few people, get a plan together to share it with many, and then get scared and let it all go. I have been wondering for a long time why I do that. I see many other people do that same t...

Excerpt from Discovering the Power in We by Linda McPharlin People who hit rock bottom, have a dramatic breakdown, or who lose everything in one fell swoop are very lucky.  When this happens to someone, they know it is time to start over.  There is no mistaking this message from the universe, and it cannot be ignored.  They learn in a solid and clear way that what they are doing is not working.  They are driven from their mistaken path without choice and forced to change.  Also, they are deeply humbled rendering them more easily capable of knowing gratitude and appreciation.  I realized that what I was going through was much more dangerous and insipid than if I had been lucky enough to have a tragic rock-bottom moment in my life.  ...

Dear Friends, Today, Sept. 21, is International Peace Day! Perhaps we can celebrate this day by showing kindness to one another, forgiving someone, being compassionate or empathetic to the problems of those around us, and by loving both each other AND ourselves! May we all ponder the important and vital nature of our quest for peace today and imagine what we would be capable of in our world if we could find it! Much love to you all, Linda McPharlin, Power in We Global Ambassador www.powerinwe.org PS: I invite you to join me this evening on a short phone call for Peace Day. I will be discussing the "WE" Paradigm and how it can help us to find more peace within ourselves and with each other. For more information and to sign u...

I woke up this morning with an image in my head of people all around me playing a game of "Peek a boo", only they never reached the final phrase and phase of the game, which is "I see You!". They just kept covering and uncovering their eyes and saying "peek a boo."  As I thought more about it, it hit me in a profound way that most people go throughout their lives playing this form of "peek a boo". They uncover their eyes just long enough for others to have a peek at them, but then they quickly cover them up again. The eyes being the windows to the soul or the windows to who is really inside that human figure are revealed for anyone to see, but only for a moment. They are covered again before anyone can really get a good long look or be...