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Text, illustrations, and photographs copyright 2008 Liz Mitten Ryan

All rights reserved. No part o this book may be reproduced or transmitted in anyorm or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,or by an inormation storage and retrieval systemexcept by a reviewer who mayquote brie passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaperwithout

permission in writing rom the publisher. For inormation, contact Prima Publishing,250-377-3884.

This book contains insights supplied to the author. It is published or generalinormation and not as a substitute or independent verication by users whencircumstances warrant. It is sold with the understanding that neither the author norpublisher is engaged in rendering any specic psychological, religious, or equineadvice. The publisher and author disclaim any personal liability, either directly orindirectly, or any inormation presented within. Although the author and publisherhave used care and diligence in the preparation, and made every eort to ensure theaccuracy and completeness o inormation in this book, we assume no responsibilityor errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or inconsistencies herein.

www.lizmittenryan.com www.sabbatical.com

Photographs by: Liz Mitten Ryan, Kevin Ryan, Laurie C. Munsell, andNicole Reynolds.Photo-graphics: Peter Ryan

Published and promoted by

Prima Publishing250-377-3884

ISBN: 1-4392-1193-0

Printed in: USA

First Printing 2008


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Liz Mitten Ryan

Prima Publishing2008


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To God.In all his miraculous glory,To whom I dedicate my life in all its possibility,and my eternal and immeasurable LOVE.


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Contents

Introduction - 5

Sabbatical. . . resting in the power of isness

1 In the beginning 9

2 Possibility 23

3 The Wilderness Experience 45

4 Temptation and Sacrifce 65

5 Baptism 93

6 Lesson in Aloneness 109

7 True Identity 127

8 Isness 147

9 L.I.F.E. Forever 167

10 Sabbatical 177


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5Sabbatical

Ihave read many spiritual, metaphysical and new age books

and understood and believed in the principles. What I havent

understood is why they are limited to human concepts and

belies. Having spent a considerable time (ten years now) in the

company o my animals and nature, I have absorbed a dierent

perspective that is all encompassing in its parameters. I one

were to imagine a world very much like the original Garden

o Eden state where all the creatures, animals, man and all o

creation walked and talked with each other and God, it would

be similar to the animals understanding when they connect to

higher consciousness. From there, the orce o love permeates

all o lie. There are no opposites, no death, only lie everlasting.

All experience is enjoyed through the power o the imagination

and there is no possibility o harming another to obtain your

desires. Removed rom physical constraints, there would be no

need or work or war to obtain assets that were always available.

We would not need to kill. Lie would be a sabbatical.This vision comes rom a higher plane o existence, both beore

and beyond our immersion in matter, a place where we can visit

in our consciousness whenever we can leave the boundaries o our

physical sel. When we are not conned to a single identity we are

ree to travel wherever our consciousness would like to go.

That is true wisdom, truth, joy, reedom, abundance and love.

That is who we truly are: UNLIMITED MIRACULOUS

BEINGSresting in the power o Isness. All o us one, in the

creative genius o the Universe, the imagination o the All.

Introduction


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PEACE

by Kevin Ryan

In those quiet moments

When the soul

Takes a deep breath

And the air falls still

The senses soften

And an alertness of lifes

Ebbing forces

Lifts the heart.

In those moments lies my peace

When our mountains dissolve

And fears bitter taste

Tastes loves sweet freedom.

Lifes purpose harmonizes

In those eternal moments

of joy.


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23Sabbatical

Chapter 2Possibility

W

e as humans suer rom an insidious malaise that is

growing like a cancer throughout our species and

our world. Natural System Dysunction (NSD)is a direct result o our alienation rom our natural, lie-giving

relationship to our sourcethe source o all creation and the

sustenance that eeds all lie. The more we distance ourselves

rom our natural state, the more dangerous and ragile our

tenuous hold on lie becomes.

To avoid sounding as unintelligent as the average human being

who says Speak louder, I dont understand your language, the

solution to NSD lies in our ability to listen to the language o

naturea language beyond words. It speaks sotly, but with

wisdom, instantly remembered as absolute truth, both or the

individual and or the whole as one united symbiotic system and

greater being. This is what the animals call the ALL (God).

I dont think you will nd an animal with NSD unless it has

somehow been made so by a human, i.e., held in captivity under

orced and unnatural circumstances. The human antidote to NSD currently being developed is

the science o organic psychology, which enables your thinking


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24 Sabbatical

and eeling to consciously workwith rather than against nature.

In other words, you need to return to your roots as an organic

design, subject to the organic laws o nature, but rather than

consciously working with nature, we can, in act, play with it

and allow nature to play with us. Isness is the astest route. It

transports us instantly to connect with the ALL and benet rom

the immensity and wisdom o an innite resource, and our truth

as spiritual beings temporarily

immersed in matter.

How can we ully appreciate

the possibility o Isness? We must

reconnect to our source. Althoughthis can be done rom a meditative

state, ound by removing ourselves

rom the distractions o our unnatural lives, it is dicult and

time-consuming to attain this state by sheer will. The secret o

continuous and acile meditation, or as the Hindu Buddhists call

it, active Samadhi, is connection to all lie. Samadhi describes a

non-dualistic state o consciousness in which the consciousness o

the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object.

True connection can only be discovered in the absence o thought,

and going about simple tasks in the presence o nature and animals

is the astest route to that state. As my horses tell me:

Our lives are one continuous conversation with God,

or the ALL. We recognize that when humans converse

with God, it becomes a revelation. But why must humans

take ownership o everything? Your translation voices a

collective ownership o God within all humans. God is

True connection can only be discovered

in the absence of thought, and going

about simple tasks in the presence of

nature and animals is the fastest routeto that state.


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28 Sabbatical

within all lie! We are no less because we speak a dierent

language, or because our skin or our culture is oreign.

We have much to teach humanity about the ALL. All lie

is symbiotic. Do not orget us. The part about dominion

is only written in human religions. You humans speak much o enlightenment. What is

enlightenment? We suppose, or humans, it is that ever-

evasive lightness o being. It is dicult or you; you

struggle to achieve; you struggle to avoid; you just plain

struggle, when the true secret o enlightenment is to simply

be in the light, to be o the light. You humans are

o the dark most o the time. You enjoy the stimulation

o game playing, which to us is simply untruth. We arehonest, absolute; you will not nd an animal pretending

to be anything other than their God-given selves.

It is strange how your truisms speak the truth, but you

rarely hear them. You are mostly too busy to listen. That

is the secret: You must listen, and to listen you must be

quiet; you must quiet your minds.

What we know o you is conusinga tangled jumble

o thoughts and desires. One moment you think and eel

one way; the next moment, another. Horses have a hardtime with this because our minds are like a clear pool. We

are the waters o the earth and we refect the sky. We do

not claim ownership o the waters, but share them with

all who would come to drink. We have not orgotten the

truth o who we are. We are the water and the sky. We

are the magic o light in orm, and light cannot be held

captive but or a moment in time. And then there is no

time except when we try to steal a nite piece o the ALLand hold it captive or our own appreciation. A sparkle in


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a drop o dew here, now, only or an instantimmortal

only in the memory o the ALL.

There is only one possibility or your recovery. You

must give up ownership; you must give up desire to have

anything or yourselves alone. I we can pray or ourrecovery, as Thomas Merton says, then, God willing,

our will should become his will or us, a ree fow o light

through liethrough our individual lives, wonderul

and unique, in every way a acet o the ALL, as necessary

to lie as lie itsel. We are, each and every one o us,

created beings, one with lie itsel; we are as necessary to

the course o creation as the blood that fows through our

veins is to our very being. I, in act, we could surrenderto the lie orce and trust in the wisdom that directs the

individual fow o blood in all lie, then we could be as

careree as that fow o blood, o tides, o seasons, and

o lie itsel.

What are we, the created ones, but a mound o dusta

lieless mound o dust, without the breath o spirit to give

us wings. I have always elt rom a very young age that my

wings were something I must earna badge o merit that

required a lot o learning to reclaim.I do remember guratively putting up my hand when

asked, Who will volunteer or God? I will, I said, not

even aintly understanding the assignment. But I would

do it again and again. I would do it orever, because when

one truly loves God and understands that there really is

nothing beyond or beore that state o absolute belonging,

then there is nothing else that matters.

The problem is that when we come to the earth plane,we are plunged into matter rom spiritearth dust rom


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32 Sabbatical

stardustand we are in the dark. The light is ar away, a

distant memory that grows ever dimmer with immersion

into mass mind. The only way to maintain the connection

is to commune with the natural world and maintain an

open relationship with earth and animal energy.In reality, our wings are our birthright; we do not

have to earn them, but we do have to remember to look

ater them. We are born to the possibility o achieving

Christhoodthe possibility o becoming a clear conduit

o God, maniest in matter.

I remember years ago being given a picture o God (and I think

the animals term, the ALL, says it better). God was pictured as

an enormous light made up o smaller, intricate, and multiaceted

lights, or light bodies, each attached to earth bodies, so that,in act, we are all the ALL. The clarity and strength o our


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connection shines through our earth bodies, each unique orm

or earth body brilliant in its connection to the ALL.

Christ, Muhammad, and Buddha were clear acetsprisms,

i you willthrough which the light o the ALL became the

splendor o a rainbow, clearly conveying the myriad beauty o

the God-being.

To even hope to attain that state o perection within the

connes o matter, we must keep our connection to our light

bodies clean and open. We must bathe in the energy o other

clear light bodies. The natural world is energized with light. The

trees, rocks, water, and plants are

all vibrant in their refection othe ALL. It is in their presence

that we can rest, absorb, and

refect the energy that so clearly

emanates rom the pure lie

orce. When we experience the incredible beauty o nature in

harmonya sunset, a spring day, the majesty and myriad beauty

o the changing days and seasonswe all know moments o

Satori, a Zen Buddhist state o intuitive illumination.

We remember and reconnect with our true selves, our one

sel, which is the ALL. When we experience that connection,

the individual becomes or an instant again the whole, vibrating

in symphony with the ALL. We are renewed, rereshed, and

reawakened. When we return to the mass-mind conusion o

the human experience, we are orever changed by the memory

o magic.In the Bible, the woman who wanted only to touch the robe o

Christ symbolizes the act that when we touch or are touched by

The clarity and strength of ourconnection shines through our earth

bodies, each unique form or earth body

brilliant in its connection to the ALL.


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39Sabbatical

As Picasso, my two-year-old horse, wrote:

Let us explore

the possibility of our communion

together . . .We contribute something new,

and as yet undiscovered

by us . . .

and life itself.


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BUTTERFLY

by Kevin Ryan

Somewhere out o the early morning light, a movement

stirred in the visage o tree, grass, and fower. Slowly, in

arcing movements, jerking along a seemingly random

pattern, the butterfy approached the awakening fower.

Aroused by the futtering silence and vibrant colors, a

curiosity grew rom stem to petal. I only such beauty

could alight upon me, touch me. Oh, what joy it would

bring! What questions I would have, o rootless existenceenlightened upon the breeze, ree to travel unhindered as

a child o the sun and wind. And so the fower dreamed

as the butterfy coursed along the air currents.

So here I am again upon my aimless quest o the

landscape, the butterfy pondered. With its purpose

ueled by the rays o the sun, it circled, searching or a

companion.


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