I also love how we are a contracted form of the universe, which furthermore suggests that the possibility of expansion is always close at hand. The capacity for expansion is always within us; we have that ability to call on it, to invoke it. Like a super hero, we have that power. No matter what I am dealing with I can always change the way I perceive or relate to it, so that I can be in a more expanded state.

A few days ago when I was in Puerto Rico, my mother made a strange comment to me. She was asking me if I was interested in any men and I said that not really, not right now. She said, "well, remember that you are now 37 years old Maria. And that your time is running out. That good men are really hard to find." And I literally felt my light dim. I knew she meant it from the best place and that in her heart of hearts she wants me to be happy. But it took a lot from me not to lash out at her and tell her how hurtful it was that comment. Not to take her comment with me on my suitcase, all the way back to Los Angeles. I had to pause, breathe and tell her that love never runs out. That I don't agree with her assessment. That there is always time for love... 

So it's not so much what happens to us but how we relate to it. And relating to challenging comments from a more expanded place allows us to move out of a contraction. Just like there are parts of the universe that are heavy, dark, cloaked... There are others which are auspicious, free, unbounded. It simply becomes a matter of where do I want to focus on, what do I want to identify with. What do I want to aligning with? To quote Frank Jude Boccio, a Buddhist teacher, "Suffering or happiness is created through one's relationship to experience, not by experience itself."