Guest Blogger/Author Feature… The Magnificent Michael Mark

IAM so happy to introduce to all my friends around the world ‘The Magnificent Michael’. IAM delighted to put a face to Michael who I’ve been friends with on WordPress for the last few years. I love reading his warm hearted expression; my heart resonating with his pure loving energy, as he inquires about life’s mystery, our natural world and his own feelings. He shares with the world a playful, mystic and passionate humour that I sense is his foundation and what drives him to discover new insights and simultaneously, expands consciousness… his, mine, everyones… connecting us all into the depths of oneness and truth.

Here is a glimpse into Michaels wonderful expression on the essence of a miracle… answering the question What is a Miracle?

‘I think miracles are invisible.  I think they are a restructuring of one’s mind and heart.  They are an instantaneous shifting of one’s patterns of thought and knowing that yield an opening, an expansion, an inversion, a piercing of boundaries, an inrush of clarity.  They are miraculous because they provide an avenue of understanding that previously didn’t exist, or seem available.  It couldn’t be chosen because it couldn’t be seen.  It laid outside of history, outside of previous experience, and thus outside of one’s vocabulary of possibility.  Miracles insert letters into the alphabets we use, and words into our languages.  They add colors to our palettes.  They turn us inside out, and render entire epochs of time moot because of what they bring forth within us.’

You can read the whole article here.

Michael is not only a passionate writer he is an avid reader… of blogs, books, fiction and non-fiction. I wonder if you know how many books you’ve read along your Journey Michael? When Michael has a chance he’ll write reviews of books he’s read… with a difference… as he has realised the reviews are as much about whats going on in his own heart as the book itself.

Michaels reflections on Compassion
Compassion for me is the natural result of realizing we are the same. In a very deep way, we share the same beginning and ending—we come from Love and will each return to Love—and in this tiny space in between we share these lives in which we each have the opportunity to create and dream and grieve and worry and rebel and hope and wonder. We are the same at our root, even as we are unique in our human expression, and compassion for me holds these realities together effortlessly.

Compassion is a stance of openness to one another, a vehicle for witnessing the underlying unity that joins us, which leads in turn to new and creative expressions of this unity in our lives. With compassion we can see through appearances to discover the points of connection that mark our deep relatedness, and we are able to navigate the moment by following the thread. The natural response to this awareness is our graceful creative expression.

When I began to write, for instance, it was largely the product of desiring to say things I didn’t know how to say—to give expression to the wonder of treading near the threshold of the reality of Love. But there were difficulties as well, because as we attempt to bring forth the essence of who we are we encounter the thoughts and beliefs and internal schisms that divide us, rather than reveal our indelible connection. Compassion helps us see how small these things really are in the face of the Love that holds us. Compassion savors as equal our meekest, first expressions of new life as much as the grandest works of which we can conceive, for compassion is always alert to the simple truths of who we are.

I think with compassion you can look at yourself while you struggle with some demon, and you can laugh. And keep going. And in this keeping going… you discover what the demon had distracted you from: the greater riches of your heart. It is inevitable then that as we come into contact with the riches of our own hearts we will discover it is a heart we all share.

My first creative expressions were fun, but a little stilted I think. Maybe perfect at the same time. We simply do move through waves of accepting the nature of things as they truly are. Compassion is like the buoyancy we float upon as we pass through these waves. It helps when we’re bogged down to witness the brilliance of those around us, too, and compassion always has an eye to this truth in one another. Compassion maintains our awareness of what is, and as we learn to give ourselves to its expression we open up further and further ourselves—giving life to the wonders of our shared heart.

Michaels Biography
I am a mechanical engineer and a writer living in Maine who has published two books of ecstatic poems, A Cannon, A Heart, and Now This… and I Place My Hand Upon the Sky. My short story Camping won Honorable Mention in the 2016 New Letters Fiction Contest, and have work forthcoming in the Route 7 Review. My books reflect the reality of Love’s presence, written after completing my formal education and spending another 10-15 years attempting to undo it all.

My writing adventure began in earnest when I began my blog Embracing Forever, as a platform to write about my experiences with A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, two of my favorite spiritual texts. The blog has since morphed into a variety of other things

A Canon, A Heart, and Now This… By Michael Mark
My first book of ecstatic poetry, published July 2015

I was gifted this book by the author who I do not personally know. The first thing I must say is that it has become a sacred piece of writing that is a companion to my life. When questions leave me stumped or I find myself in need of a conversation with a friend, I open the book randomly and the right passage always seems to find its way to my fingertips. If I had to pick a favorite passage, which I might add is so very hard to do, page 24 Trap Door is the one I have re-read at least thirty times in the last few months. This is a book that takes you on an almost magical journey, almost as if you are there in the company of special friends learning, laughing and just being together as a tribe. If you know someone who needs a boost of happiness and you want to be remembered for changing their life in a beautiful and meaningful way, send them this book. I tend to read books and pass them on, but in this case, I will have to decline. Dog eared and now well worn, it is my door into a land of light and love. I take the gifts I learn there and live them. Life changing and inspirational. I highly recommend it. Kim Laettner.

I Place My Hand Upon the Sky By Michael Mark
My second book of ecstatic poetry, published November 2016.

Each of these pieces is a little bridge—a link from here to here—from the here that isn’t, quite, to the here that truly is. We spend our lives adjacent to grace, not always realizing it, and sometimes a little stepping stool is useful to provide a boost, so we can peek over the wall that’s keeping us from seeing what’s really happening. Sustaining this view means greeting life on new terms, embracing a shift in perspective, and that’s what these pieces hope to spark.

Hafiz is the ringleader in this collection—the playful voice of my own heart. There’s a whole crew of friends in here. We scamper across dew-flecked lawns at dawn, assault the meaning of existence, dare the stars to wink at us, and drive off the edge of the road in a flying convertible. We’re just having fun as we receive, little by little, the joyful inklings of eternity’s promise. Michael Mark.

Purchase Michael’s books at Lulu and Amazon

Connect with Michael on his WordPress Website: Embracing Forever

Thank you Michael for joining this great venture and sharing with us your reflections on Compassion and your continued creative expression inquiring into life’s mystery that expands consciousness and helps open hearts wide to allow each to connect to their own truth.

Do you want to be part of my Guest Blogger Feature… Your Magnificent Self?

Every other Monday throughout this year, I will host a Guest Blogger/Author Feature and put YOU, my magnificent fellow Blogger/Author in the LIGHT. Not only this, I will feature your book/link to purchase in my website library and include your writing on Compassion in a FREE E-Book at the end of this year.

I know this is an incredible venture that is deeply impacting the world we live in.

For more information and how to apply, please read my post here.

Call to Action
Thanks for helping me share this Guest Blogger Feature with your friends… (Sorry I don’t have a reblog button as I host my own website… but maybe you could write an introduction and link back to this post?)

Together we can support each other and create an abundant, joyful and harmonious life.

Barbara Franken… Creative Visionary & MasterCreator
Inspiring New Energy Consciousness

A paperback and Digital Book is available from all Major online stores… Amazon and Apple

I share my own magical journey, exploring Who I AM with the help of nine Elemental Beings and expand from a world of fear, struggle and limitation into a New Energy Consciousness of love, grace and freedom. It is in this loving space that I discover my Divine and ALL LOVING self and allow myself to integrate together as one Body Consciousness… a DivineHumanBeing… and Magnificent Master Creator who expresses and creates heart and soul passion on the physical plane and beyond.

 

 

There is no time like the present moment to Sign Up and give YOURSELF a magnificent gift… I promise YOU you’ll answer your own question… How to accept myself for Who IAM?

More Info: MasterCreator Class ONLINE

 

 

 

 

All the money raised from my books and classes go to my ‘Creative Art Project’ The Magnificent Consciousness that I bring into local schools to inspire our little ones to explore, discover and express life and their part in it ALL.