Summer Shine: SEAing The Divine Design

Namaste Bright Lights! Happy Summer Solstice Shine! Happy Father’s Day & Flag Day! Happy Ramadan!

Yes our jubilant June is at a mid-way place on the calendar as we speak to a few of these celebrations, we will also explore a few ways to align & realign with the shine of our divine design!

This very day of June 14 is Flag Day in the United States; a day set aside on May 30, 1916, by then President Woodrow Wilson. Many Americans will be displaying the red, white and blue in front of homes and businesses; our little town is no doubt lined with flags by now set out early this morning by the dedicated boy scouts. The flag was originally commissioned by George Washington to seamstress Betsy Ross in June of 1776 to represent our country in anticipation of our declaration of independence. Each star represents a state, Hawaii being the last to be added in 1960, the stripes the original 13 colonies. The Native Americans have never been represented on our flag signaling a certain lack of unity this country was founded on. This destructive division still threatens us now. May we wrap ourselves in the flag this day with great compassion, tolerance, acceptance of who we be as a nation ~ tempered with the warrior spirit of our eagle to cry out and rise up against injustice.Yes, not a war general or president, a great storyteller, Aesop is the one to say “United we stand, divided we fall.” Check out those fables here!

Just as our daily news is riddled with alarming stories of corruption and disruption, there are the million hearts of light and Love praying, speaking up, marching, reaching out … Shining light through kind words and gestures of acceptance and support. In this holiest month of the Muslim calendar, Ramadan, there is a beautiful letter writing campaign you can see ~ and participate in ~ at Do Something.org. Breathe in this beauty in this Sincerely Us one minute YouTube video of young, caring voices:

YES for LOVE! Though I am hugely grateful for those who are fighting injustice as necessary like our CA Senator Kamala Harris and our CA governor Jerry Brown who is committed to the Paris Climate Change agreement, it is the loving hearts of all ages who will see us through these evolutionary birthing pains into living more of the divine design with SHINE!

Divine Design: Sea Stars to Seahorse!

This month and next, I am celebrating at Creative Spirit Families and at Spiritual Life Center, SEAing the divine. Our infinite oceans and the truly AHmazing life forms that live there provide an excellent backdrop for a deep dive into the infinity of divinity. Our ‘Creature Teachers’ like sea stars (aka starfish) offer how they can regenerate an arm if it’s lost ~ we, too can reclaim the shine of our design! And! Seahorses! Their chameleon capacity to change colors and structures coupled with their eyes that can move and see independently of each other make them great teachers of adaptation and going with the flow of what is. They also teach us about the unexpected deviation of ‘normals’ by the fact that they are the only species on earth where the male carries the eggs and gives live birth. So! Father’s Day! Seahorses are THE dads, hugh?! According to Wikipedia, Father’s Day came along in the U.S. after a few struggling efforts to launch the day. In companionship to Mother’s Day, the day has been celebrated almost as long though fathers have reportedly been honored and celebrated along with Saint Joseph feast day on March 19 as far back as the middle ages. Ah, so many lenses of history, humanity, nature, and divinity can and so define our reality!

And so it is we have our traditions and revisions. No matter what our personal and collective trials, we find ways to adapt to new ‘normals’. And! As conscious co-creators we have a constant invitation to shine the Light of Love on what we are co-creating! Here on this side of the world, we have Summer Solstice next week, June 21. The longest day of light allows us to see so clearly what we’re up to and what, if any, changes we deem needed to align/realign with the shine of our divine design. On the other side of the planet, the longest night offers the same invitation in a different way as the darkness can also illuminate our path. What do we wish to create? What seeds will we nurture for our ultimate shine and brightest design of the divine?!! As reported last month, I took a part time job at our old church, Spiritual Life Center which has me co-creating from PlayShop to Sunday Experience. I have remembered and implemented that I don’t believe in Sunday school ~ for so many reasons! I do believe that coming together each Sunday to experience the divine is a fine, fine way to align with our brightest design.
So! Here’s a glimpse of last Sunday … from our children’s church gathering of setting the altar ~ in this case with shells and glass, to singing the affirmation, “I am a bright light” to praying as we pass the heartbeat of shine within us hand to hand around the circle, to listening to the seashell in meditation to having the power of light in our hands … to erase mistakes and align with shine. Then! On to creating at the creation stations! Back to the circle for sharing, song, and praying out and on our way with Unity’s Prayer of Protection.

Create! I am the light of Love!

In keeping with the Solstice spotlight on my own personal life, this new church creation has been wonderful in many ways and I have also been on complete overload with my life as it continues to be ~ taking care of my father and so many details of his life on the ranch, throwing an 80th birthday party for my mama’s June birthday, doing the family program for the San Francisco Folk Music Club’s Free Folk Festival again this year (and missing Faith~!), mothering Jeremiah having all 4 wisdom teeth pulled and taking 3 summer online college courses while going to Boy’s State for a week, East for 3 weeks, Band Camp for a week ~ showing me the ‘sins of the fathers/mothers’ so clearly! “Sins” means mistakes and overload, overwhelm, and overdo are highly prized sins of mine! Yet! Divine design WILL bring us back to shine whenever we choose to align!

So! Here’s 9 fine, favorite ways to align with (my) shine:
1. Quiet Time ~ This can be just absolute rest and/or listening for the divine!
2. Nature ~ Walk, look, listen! From the leaves on the trees to the clouds in the sky, nature can always help align us high!
3. Introspection ~ Journaling and/or thinking deep as we listen for the still small voice of wisdom always ready to be heard.
4. PLAY! Allowing myself time to do what feels good, joyful, playful. From paintbrush to beach walk, playtime is different for each of us and often dependent on the day/time of our calendar lives. Yet whether it’s moments or days, there is great freedom and alignment with play!
5. Inspiration ~ This too is different for each of us yet reading or listening to a master teacher can help us realign. Inspiration can also come from music, a friend, nature … an infinity of ways!
6. Process yucky feelings! In order to align with our divine shine, we sometimes or oftentimes must first release the yuckies; exercise, journaling, screaming, crying ~! As I’ve talked to here many times, I love the Healing Codes, Emotion Codes, Access Consciousness.
7. Be a Sovereign Being! Unplug from all the yucky of others so that you are not aligned with THAT! From family to the collective uproars, negativity is always swirling with the invitation to join in. Be aware! Access Consciousness has a great tool in the question, “Who does this belong to?” If what you are feeling is not yours, it will drop away. If you have been triggered, then you need to use other ways to release. We are in a constant vibrational matching game so stay sovereign and match HIGH!
8. Affirm and Deny ~ Affirming the truth of who we truly be while denying the lies, is a great way to align. i.e., the voice of “I can’t do this” surfaces so we can meet that with a definitive affirmation of “I can” or a definitive choice of “I choose to know I can do this.” “I choose to find the help I need to do this.” “I choose to release the fear and doubt so I can do this.”
9. Ask Questions! While the power of affirmation is great, it is also limiting. When we ask questions, we open up to the infinity of divinity to answer them. Just keep asking and be opening for answers that can come in all ways. Again, from Access Consciousness, they always ask, “How does it get any better than this?” By asking that, we are opening up to greater ways of experiencing happiness and thereby ourselves as infinite beings shining our divine design.

With the last few months of familial and (other) work creation, some aspects of Leaping Literacy Library and Creative Spirit Families are in a divine order holding pattern … swirling and twirling into more better, I am trusting! There are lots of fun freebies as always + we have reduced our Marvelous Membership fee for the shining, sizzling summer: a divine $99 for a year’s access to hundreds of videos, songs, Laurie StorEBooks and ALOT of new content being birthed. Hoping to have that NEWs in jolly July!

Our June Free Shelf in the Leaping Literacy Online Library:

In the divine shine of our design, so it is we go …

One by one … Two by two … Or by the school!We all shine our divine design!And so it is!

In this divine design month of shine, may we each and all see our daily purpose through the eyes of the divine. May we love ourselves and each other deeply with compassion and tenderness. We are all the same creation of Love on this journey of life … living in a sea of infinity and divinity. I bow to you now in a Namaste of your infinite potentiality as you shine your own divine design. Namaste, Love!

Meeting In The Middle Of The Mystery

Namaste Marvelous, Miraculous Mystery! Happy May!

I greet you this day in reverent miracle mindedness; measuring a few life milestones and moments ~ some in celebration of mystical manifestation and others in surrendered contemplation ~ all somewhere in the intersections of those inspirations! Near the end of these May mindful musings, I have some marvelous NEWs to share! Yet, first let’s settle in with sacred breath. Our New Thought Families May Play & Pray Calendar is embracing The Mystery narrated by intergenerational voices. Based on this AHsome anonymous audio, The Mystery, I invite you to contemplate & celebrate any May day with us on the Calendar and here and now with our video, The Mystery:

And so it is we meet here in the Mystery … the awareness of sacredness and divinity in our reality. Thank you for the gift of your presence here and now. As so many aspects of political and social culture are in varied amounts of meltdown both nationally and globally, it is good to meet here, breathe deep and affirm divine order. The more centered we stay as individuals, families, communities, the more we can stay the divine in the face of the insanity of humanity.

As spring weather warms up, the mosquitos are coming out; ever thought of how these tiny beings cause destruction in their blood sucking way of survival?! There has been talk of scientifically eradicating them due to the belief that they only cause harm and provide no measurable benefits. So why did the Creator make mosquitos? Is it divine co-creation to eradicate them and thereby the life threatening diseases they carry? Are there those in the world who would be horrified if humans eradicated mosquitos? If it were attempted, would it even be successful?! Would our Earth Mother weep if we waged war with her children the mosquitos?! As we bring those questions home, what ‘mosquitos’ in your life would you like to eradicate? What purpose do they serve?

In the middle of our May Mystery celebrations and contemplations, is motherhood. With Mother’s Day celebrated the second Sunday in May,  we honor our mothers, and often, their selfless giving for our well being. Mother’s Day began in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe as a Mother’s Day For Peace; she was, in part inspired by Anna reeves Jarvis who in 1858 started “Women’s Work Days” for women working for more sanitary conditions for both sides of the civil war. These mothers didn’t want to lose their sons to war and they didn’t want any mother to lose their child to war no matter what side of the fight they were on. It was a motherly reaching and teaching of oneness, unconditional Love and the sanity of humanity. Our New Thought Families page on these Mother’s Day origins is here.

Every month has it’s special celebrations; in fact every day has been declared for multiple somethings it seems! For instance, May 1st is not just for dancing around the May Pole! From quite a roster of holidays found here, the one that had peeps taking to the streets this year was International Workers’ Day as thousands took to the streets marching in solidarity for (undocumented) immigrants. While I have not made another march since the Women’s March, I applaud the active feet and voices chanting and singing for each other, for justice, for the health and well being of our planet. Undoubtedly, there are those who view protestors as mosquitos while I revere them as the lifeblood of democracy.

In the midst of our current civil unrest, the well being of our Sacred Mother is under another series of attacks. With climate change denial at the center, artic oil drilling tops the list of old ways surfacing to be reinstated. While we as individuals and families don’t have a lot of power against big oil, collectively our marching feet do! And! In the green begins with me core of who we are, there are truly infinite ways we can practice living green ~ in conservation and in reverent respect and adoration of our Mother.  I had a call yesterday with Rev Barbara Williams for her Deep Green series and a recording of that green talk, green walk call is here.

I join Rev Barbara again tomorrow 5/6 at noon Pacific, 3:00 Eastern on her Blog Talk Radio Show to continue the conversation! Join us in yessing the Greening Our Being!

So! Yes we can align with the shine of our divine design … any time! Especially in these crazy times where the insanity of humanity seems so prevalent. We just keep listening deep for what is ours to do and trust that transformations are always turning true! The New Thought TV Channel has been in touch for family programming and even though our archives are not of the production quality they require, we will be collaborating in the future. Meanwhile! The process led me to this compilation celebrating Mama! It includes: Mama & Earth Mama Music Videos, Sacred Moments with Nature, Green Living At Home for reverent mama earth living & Sebastian Wakes Up Laurie StorEBook. EnJOY!

New Thought Families Leaping Literacy Celebration: MAMA
Password: LLLNTM
Runs: 23:36

Our Leaping Literacy Library has some new innovations that will be going live throughout the summer. The Leaping Literacy Library Free Shelf is stocked with videos, songs and Laurie StorEBooks that celebrate variations of mama and more!
Before I close this sharing, I do want to speak to a celebration that feels like a full circle, mystic manifestation … I interviewed at our old church this week, Spiritual Life Center, for a part time Youth Education Director position. It has been a loooong time since we were really part of this loving community ~ though in divine order, I was there 3 WOW Wednesdays in the past few months, presenting with my interfaith minister friend Karene. There are a myriad of details I could dive into yet what’s important is that this was a process of surrender and “Thy will be my will” in receiving the call to apply, applying, and receiving the job. The Mystery is at work and play in and through the leadership I will be working with at the church, in and through me as well as in and through the beautiful youth and families I will serve and be served by. It has a full circle bringing home of the resources at New Thought Families ~ many that started at Spiritual Life Center! ~ and the Leaping Literacy Library in terms of them becoming more organized and accessible for use by others. It is a happy heart synergy for me just knowing that what we nurture and envision as good can be birthed as magnificence into the mundane.

So whatever good you’re up to, let’s continue to live the Mystery holding hope for the heart of humanity and walking our path as straight and true as we can … as the I Am that I Am! And so it is. Thank you, thank you for the heart of you so true. Namaste, Love!

Spiritual Family Time! Come to Feathers Of Freedom Camp with us this summer!

Reflection & Death, Resurrection & Breath

Namaste Spring Renewal of Blossoming Beauty!

Happy April Awareness! Happy Easter ~ Monday! Happy Passover! Always so much to celebrate as our New Thought Families’ interfaith calendar honors and we will briefly explore here and now. I trust your holy days are filling you wholly in happy ways; that you are, indeed, finding heart filled conscious ways to rise from the dark places into bright light shining full expression of the true you! For my part, I continue the swirling dance of being woman, mom, daughter, artist, Leaping Literacy Librarian, and child of Creator ever evolving and emerging from the egg of life’s potentialities, possibilities, endless energies. I have been through some bumpy health and relearned the power of vibrational healing and energy clearings ~ spring cleaning at it’s best! We are energy beings after all. As an empath, I SO take on the energies of others ~ lately that has been prevalent with my parents and their failing health. Like small children who unconsciously try to “fix” their loved ones by taking on the family pain patterns, we can continue to carry them on … and on … and on! Yet! The transformational tool box beckons! We have only to reach in and grab those tools! I was reunited and re-amazed by the simple transforming power of Dr. Bradley Nelson’s Emotion Codes as I implemented them recently to shift physical pain from my body and seemingly from my mother’s body as well! AHmazing!Reflection & Death

The art of contemplation & reflection is a transformational tool often overlooked and under-utilized in this busy culture. It requires quiet, stillness, surrender. It requires an openness to listen and receive. Sometimes what we receive, demands further surrender and even death. Death of old patterns perhaps. Death of old habits or ways of being. While death can be a peaceful, deep breath release, it is more often a full on, knock down, drag out battle! My Lenten desire to release doubt was definitely tumultuous at times.  I was reminded that the roots of doubt are deep and long. As I weeded through some of the dark places, I gave more space for the ever present, omnipresent light of Love to shine. My relationship with doubt feels more like a dance now and much less like a battle. It did not die completely yet a good deal of my addiction to it did die leaving my soul freer to rise and shine!

For the past 10 years, I have had an annual writing about Holy Week and Easter …  from the celebratory ride Jesus took on Palm Sunday to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the cross, the tomb, and ultimate Spirit rising. This year, for a myriad of reasons, my reflections in writing are simply this:
The human journey of the soul incorporates great heights of celebration and deep depths of despair often fueled by betrayal and the cruel crucifixions of judgment, doubt, blame, shame, fear, that we inflict on ourselves and each other. Religion, ritual, holy remembrance serves us all by helping us move through the lower energies back into the higher ones. It is a cycle and a circle like that of our sacred mother … seeds sown in darkness reaching for the light to embody divine essence expressed.

This year, from several different sources, I really got how Jewish Passover is the same holy celebration as Holy week and Easter. Jesus was a Jew and the last supper, a Seder. How great is that?! Across traditions, the same themes of humanity have their intersections. Even though I have been doing our New Thought Families’ interfaith calendar for ten years, just this year it came to my attention that on April 9th, the Chinese tradition of Qingming or Tomb Sweeping Day is a day to honor one’s ancestors, visit their grave sites while also welcoming in the new spring season. Birth and death, memory and breath!

Resurrection & Breath

Here on our side of the pretty plant, April is the AHsome awareness of spring renewal and life, sweet life ever regenerating with beauty, color, vibrant vitality. We celebrate Earth Day April 22nd ~ and YES, Earth Day every day and everyday green living, thank you! Arbor Day is always the last Friday in April in the States with each state having its own Arbor Day corresponding to planting times. Globally, many nations have their own Arbor Day ~ trees are indeed an international, interfaith celebration! Our own everyday Green Living is indeed a way of life. The winter is always increased dedication for me doing laundry having given up using a dryer 10 years ago. Our Living Green videos in the Leaping Literacy Library document there are so many ways we can step more lightly and reverently upon our sacred mother who gives so much and asks so little. I invite you to review your ways of being, perhaps add a new habit of sustainability, celebrate every step of recycling or green living you engage in as well as be in deep reverence to our earth’s beauty and sustenance. Breathe in this life giving home and the way she is constantly resurrecting into more and more beauty, more and more life!Yes, we are always in choice, balancing the infinity of callings within us and all around us. Our calendars and ancestral traditions can help guide the way tempered by our own inner reflections to choose to engage with them ~ or not! April is also home to National Library Week ~ this year it corresponded with Holy Week. I spent the last few weeks as Leaping Literacy Librarian working on making the online Library a more user friendly place. Like all else, made good headway on a loooooooooong journey! April’s Free Shelf is a full spring and earth celebration: In wrapping up this April Awareness, I harken back to the first day of this auspicious month … April Fool’s Day. In all of my reflections and detections over the last few months, I have done a fair bit of mindful musings over mental illness. President Trump, to many of us, is clearly mentally ill. Yet, his supporters continue to see him in a positive light. The dropping of the “Mother of all bombs” on Syria last week is a devastating step back for humanity. Yet, unbelievably, some see it as a good thing. Can it be we are all merely fools on this stage of life? The joker card in the deck is sometimes referred to as the ‘trump card’ meaning it thwarts all others. Many card games, discard the joker disallowing it from play. Sometimes the joker or trump card is the wild card meaning anything goes. An interesting ponderance in our current game of life, yes?!

Ultimately, my blooming beauties, we do get to reflect on what we give our breath to and what we assign death to. My pathway to peace continues to be through prayer … reflection, breath, renewal, energy management through the transformational toolbox … A simple walk in nature is always a wonderful reset! Our beautiful planet that we celebrate this month is ever awaiting our reverent alignment with her beauty. For all of the craziness ~ our own, our families’, our culture ~ there is ALWAYS divine order! You may want to affirm and anchor this in by hugging a tree … today … on Arbor Day … every day?!!!  Any day and every day is a great day to hug a tree! Thank you so much for pondering and breathing with me. Namaste, Love!

Magnificent March Brings Sacred Spring

Fertility Spring Birth Spring Beginnings Spring Renewal Spring Light Spring!

Namaste Blessed, Birthing, Blooming Beauty!

Happy spring! Happy March! Women’s History Month! St. Patrick’s Day! Equinox ~ First Day of Spring! What a month! Are you feeling the Equinox renewal and balance?!  Here’s hoping your hearts and calendars are full ~ yet not too full ~ with fun, frolic, and expanded awareness opportunities! For my part, life’s beautiful celebrations have been a bit tempered with the continued swirling political energies and my personal family journeys. Below, I speak a bit about ‘women’s work’ globally and what that has meant for me personally and in relation to Leaping Literacy this month.

Yet, let us delay no further in fully embracing the wonders of SPRING! Officially March 20th this year, Equinox ushers in spring (and fall on the other side of our pretty planet!) bringing equal hours of light and dark as our days become longer in light, our nights shorter in darkness. AND! Equinox brings the rich beauty and history of Goddess Ostara. Before Christianity (and I suppose other organized religions like Judaism & Islam too), Goddess and nature worship was widespread. Goddess Ostara was also known as Esther (Easter!) and known for renewal, resurrection, birth, re-birth. Today, we can metaphysically align with all these energies as nature calls our Spirits out to dance with the sprouts of green and colorful blossoms. Here’s is a prayer that combines these energies:

Sacred Spring! Oh, you reignite our passionate hearts to take flight!
Thank You Goddess Ostara for renewal, balance, and resurrection.
Thank You holy Source of All Creation for blooming perfection;
divine order grace,  transformation’s face of magnificent magnitude.
May we all spring forward now full of faith, trust, and joyful gratitude!

I also wrote a new song this week with and for Ostara and the gloriousness of spring. Here it is!

Ostara Ignites!

Easter Esther Ostara!
©2017Laurie Story Vela Song is here with lyrics below.

Ostara Ignites! ©2017Laurie Story Vela

Chorus:
Spring is here alive and bright!
Spring is here alive and bright!
Green is reaching for the light
Easter, Esther, Ostara
Easter, Esther, Ostara

Ostara shines new birthing delights
Spring is here alive and bright
Light returning to balance the night
Ostara ignites our passions to flight
Chorus

Ostara Shines on fertile ground
scattering seeds all around
Like green seedlings we reach for the light
With renewed desires, our passions take flight
Chorus

This celebration of Ostara and spring kicked in for me last week as we experienced desert blooms ~ fresh flower faces smiling up from the cracked, dry earth. Life appearing from where it seems there is only barren dryness. We had gone south looking at universities for Jeremiah (he applies in the fall!) and I insisted on taking in the super bloom on the desert that came after so much rain this year. Jeremiah was happy enough to take it in from the car ~ yet he missed much! Though this picture looks like we were off road, I assure you there was a good size, legal road underneath our tires! It was an amazing, far as the eye could see experience that I relished. These moments of nature’s beauty feed the soul long after! One patch I tip toed through was full of caterpillars on their way to transformation …

Women’s Work

Transformation! There is a lot of that going on these days! Women’s History Month reminds us of some of the incredible struggles women have gone through. The plethora of information and inspiration is out there in growing web pages which I still aspire to add to.  As women, we are the receptive ones and yet the ones to give birth. Throughout history, women have been the ones to surrender … yes, in childbirth. And in patriarchal society ‘norms’ that still dominate in many places today. Spiritually, surrender can be a great strength; ‘Thy will be my will’. In learning to balance surrender and birth, there is a powerful co-creation wisdom. In this time of evolving consciousness, women hold a special place in the birthing process of humanity. As the world undergoes definite birthing pains with continued power struggles, the receptive, flowing female energies are needed more than ever.

My own ‘women’s work’ has been embodied in my Lenten intention to let go of doubt. By naming and claiming ~ anything ~ along with persistent practice, you will find how deep the roots go. In my own case, doubt runs much deeper than I would like! My days are filled with family service as I continue to care for the elders ~ my dad in particular who is still on the ranch which leaves me 2 sets of houses, food, bills (his) pills, etc. ‘Women’s work is never done’ as the saying goes leaving us the truth that all too often, as women our time is consumed by caring for the needs of others. Before last week’s Spring Break college looking road trip, I hosted Jeremiah’s dad here in our tiny home for a week. While he is a good man, he is one to really fill a place up with his big presence. I got to practice surrender, step away from a lot of work I had on my list and say, what project would I/could I get done this week? I put together the demo CD of the 36 Short Spirit Songs A ~ Z ~ now ready as a practice CD for the intergenerational voices who can help bring these singing affirmations to the world! These spiritual family literacy songs came to life throughout our alphabetic 2016 and continue their journey into being. So goes the birthing process of co-creation transformation and manifestation!

 Our Leaping Literacy Library Free Shelf this month features some strong female energies! They include SoulPlay Earth Gym Guide Rachel Flower, Teen Talent actress Angel playing a Reconstructionist scene of Anne Frank and Tess the liberated snake in the newly re-illustrated Laurie StorEBook, Tess’ Dress.One of our alliteration Laurie StorEBooks is on the Free Shelf this month as well; Carey Canary’s Cakes gives us a creative, caring & quite chipper canary:
I like to think my imaginary mentor Dr. Seuss would like Carey the strong little canary! March is also Dr. Seuss’ birthday with lots of literacy based celebrations. We visited Geisel Library on the UCSD campus; I sat on the Dr’s lap (bronze statue outside!) and felt encouraged to continue keeping on with my Laurie StorEBooks. From the Seuss archives on the inside of the library, I was amazed by this cartoon the Dr. did in the 1940’s: WOW! And time marches on … ~!

Our New Thought Families Daily Play & Pray Calendar this month features Compassion In Action. Our long list of Reconstructionist pages and games has once again stalled ~ leaving me to once again practice lots of self compassion! Yet! This (Women’s History) Month isn’t over for another week+ so I’ll update you again here! Balance of calendar inspired, I will keep planting seeds!

Spring Seeds! ~ Planting Your Glorious Garden! 

Yes, spring! This is a great time to plant spiritual seeds in our minds and hearts. As the earth around us is bursting forth with green goodness and colorful, blooming gloriousness, we can take the energy of renewal to plant seeds of what we want more of … freedom, community, relaxation, inspiration, intuition, creativity … What is calling you? Whatever it is, put some representation of it on your altar ~ and/or on your heart. Be sure to water it with faith filled remembrance in the days to come as well as be mindful to weed out any doubts or fears that sprout up around it.

Whatever you are planting this day, this season, may it bring you an ever increasing bounty of blessings and abundance! I send you seeds of great appreciation, contemplation, co-creation & celebration. Namaste, Love!

12th Annual Feathers Of Freedom Family Camp!
 Free Spirit Weekend ~ August 18-20, 2017 

Early bird deadline 3/31!
And! NEW Option: Free Spirit Full Week! ~ August 14-20, 2017 

Sacred Spirit! What’s Your Story?

Namaste dear sweet sacred snowflake Spirit!

I greet you in celebration of you and your story ~ whatever that is this sacred moment. YOU! The yes blessed creation of Love expressed you are … thank you for being here. Deep breath of gratitude and centering …

As we looked at the intricate infinity of snowflakes last week, we called on the strength of slowness, softness, and surrender. This led me to look deeper into my story and the stories of those in my family, including the ancestors. And in this incredible time of awakening and ground shaking social injustice, I took in a few of the stories of our relations in our global family that I have chosen to share here.
I first heard the powerful truth that “We live in story like fish live in water.” from Rachel Flower on the shores of Lake Tahoe where we taped her Earth Gym SoulPlay segments. The waterways of our stories include that of our ancestors, children, extended families. As global family, the oneness of who we are as creation intersects all the individual stories of the collective humanity. Free will and consciousness allow us to choose how much we step back from the story though we seemingly can never be free from it. Story being like the water to fish, it keeps us alive while it defines our existence. Like the snowflakes, we each have our own configuration and intersection of stories ~ always further explained through our perspective. I have noticed with my siblings, we all have a slightly different tale to tell about our upbringing. Do your family stories vary too?!

We belong to each other through our essence; we absorb each other’s essence through story. We all desire to belong and definitely align through shared culture, religion, and oftentimes skin color. And though we refer to shades of skin pigment with colors like white and black, none of us are that. Yet it aids the parameters of story that help us honor our ancestors. Part of humanity’s evolution is to help heal and transcend the wounds and injustices that have gone before. And as we are experiencing now, these ‘sins of the fathers’ have a way of repeating themselves ~ stories and narratives of fear resurface repeatedly until we can collectively Love them into memory banished from returning as experience. It seems we have a long way to go. Yet! Perhaps we are closer than we know. For we are better connected now and better able to trust the truth to transform. And for those not there yet, we can choose compassion as we stand for truth, peace, and justice within our individual and collective stories.

One story I would like to honor this week is that of  Rumana Ahmed, a young Muslim American woman who worked in the White House during the Obama administration and the first 8 days of the Trump regime. “I debated whether I should leave my job. Since I was not a political appointee, but a direct hire of the NSC, I had the option to stay. The incoming and now departed national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had said things like “fear of Muslims is rational.” Some colleagues and community leaders encouraged me to stay, while others expressed concern for my safety. Cautiously optimistic, and feeling a responsibility to try to help them continue our work and be heard, I decided that Trump’s NSC could benefit from a colored, female, hijab-wearing, American Muslim patriot.“ ~ Reported in the Atlantic.

This young woman’s story is an inspirational account of courage from being born here in the states, suffering intense racism & islamophobia after 911, growing up to work for national security in the White House only to re-experience the growing resurgence of fear fueled hate towards Muslims she remembered post 911. “My father taught me a Bengali proverb inspired by Islamic scripture: “When a man kicks you down, get back up, extend your hand, and call him brother.” Peace, patience, persistence, respect, forgiveness, and dignity. These were the values I’ve carried through my life and my career.” Rumana Ahmed is an inspiration and a truth teller.  Her story is also a chilling and telling account of what the newly inhabited White House was/is like after the changing of the guard. You can read Ahmed’s whole story in the Atlantic.

There are, of course, so many, many stories in this time of deportations, immigrants, families in fear and turmoil. Innocents of all kinds are being harmed. My second story comes from beloved children’s book author Mem Fox.
Fox is a world renowned children’s book author from Australia. Earlier this month, she travelled to America to speak at a literacy conference; she was detained for questioning at LAX in a room with others where all were reportedly treated badly. “I have never in my life been spoken to with such insolence, treated with such disdain, with so many insults and with so much gratuitous impoliteness,” Fox said. “I felt like I had been physically assaulted which is why, when I got to my hotel room, I completely collapsed and sobbed like a baby, and I’m 70 years old.” Fox said she was questioned over her visa, despite having travelled to America 116 times before without incident. She was eventually granted access to the country. Fox said she was shocked by her treatment and “couldn’t imagine” returning to the US. Her story has been covered by multiple sources including ABC in Australia yet the clearest account of the whole incident I’ve read just came from The Guardian wherein she said, “I am all about inclusivity, humanity and the oneness of the humans of the world; it’s the theme of my life.”  Ironically, Mem Fox‘s latest book is “I’m Australian Too” which celebrates multiculturalism and immigrants in Australia. You can see as well as hear the audio book, I’m Australian Too HERE!

As we share each others stories ~ of sorrow or celebration ~  we open our hearts wider to the best of who we are as humanity. Unfortunately, ‘history does repeat itself’ in the horrors yet also in the brave resilience and actions for justice. Incredibly, the Underground Railroad is back! The reporting on the Railroad for illegals and undocumented is here ; it tells of a few efforts including a network of Los Angeles religious groups called the Rapid Response Team. In the sorrow of these times, we can celebrate the sanctuary cities and the individuals willing and able to provide safe houses on the resurrected Underground Railroad.

It’s true that in the toughest times, the tender truth of our humanity rises ~ even in a car commercial! I can’t believe I’m sharing this here yet it touches my heart and speaks to the collective story of our sacred connections:

As we grapple for our personal and collective truth, let us, indeed dare to live our highest and best in oneness.

For my part, our Leaping Literacy Library continues with various voices and offerings. At New Thought Families, our daily Play & Pray Calendar switches this week here from February’s Love Blessed to March’s Compassion In Action ~ daily remembrances, invitations and celebrations! Our Peaceful Reconstructionists are still being added, catching up from last week. Our last finished round was 3 celebrating these environmental heroes and sheroes:Through spending time with inspirational people, we share the magnificence that each of them brings … past, present, even future ~ and we are better able to touch our own magnificent radiance. Let us keep countering any bully culture with the best of human kindness, perseverance, resilience, and Love expressed for ourselves and for our children.

Finally, I must also honor the story of our indigenous people as the No DAPL Standing Rock Camp was dismantled this past week. Through this worldwide prayerful effort, consciousness has indeed been lifted. While the black snake has been tapped and not left to sleep, there are many victories and celebrations. Standing Rock brought us many wise voices and a reporting of the people by the people. Lyla June sings of the generational story in her All Nations Rise. Below, she sings a bit of All Nations Rise at Standing Rock and then the full version music video that was released last fall. Feel the power of her voice and wisdom and that of her ancestors coming through. The story is ancient, layered, wisely profound, compelling and indeed … rising ~ all of us ~ ever higher.

 All Nations Rise by Lyla June At Standing Rock

All Nations Rise • Lyla June • Black Hills Unity Concert 2016

 Thank you again for being here … to share your Spirit, these stories, your story, our story of conscious humanity on the rise. Whatever your stories be, may their sacred core bring you home to your resilient Spirit and home to the heart of humanity. Namaste, Love!

Snowflakes As Spiritual Sacredness

Namaste Soft Snowflake of Shining Sacredness!

I greet you in the Spirit of snowflakes this day; in celebration of the intricacy of their beauty and the connectivity of their stability. As a creation, snowflakes are a wonder … water forming into ice crystals that attach to each other making an infinite array of sparkling configurations. If you care to take a few minutes to watch this video, Snowflake Watching, from Discovery UK on YouTube, you will meet  Physicist Ken Libbrecht  and see some of the extraordinary snowflakes he has photographed around the world as well as simulated in his lab:

My Jeremiah just turned 17 and he aspires to perhaps be a physicist. I doubt snowflakes will be the thing he follows though who knows?! His generation are forging into new (job) creations of all kinds ~ very much like the infinity of designs that snowflakes engage in. Like everything in our existence, we can have various viewpoints on what something is and what it means ~ to us. The term ‘snowflakes’ as a putdown came into my awareness fairly recently and the brief research I did on the subject seemed it was aimed at those who were ‘soft’ or intolerant of intolerance, perhaps most often the younger generation my son is growing in to. The putdown, as near as I can tell, is focused on being too soft … as if there is such a thing, at least from the spiritual perspective.I sincerely hope I have raised my son to be soft … and tolerant … and yes, I’m o.k. ~ as the snowflake I am ~ with a peaceful intolerance of such things as hate speech or the ideologies that leave others out such as white supremacy. And while I don’t choose to delve further into any aspects I may be missing to the term ‘snowflake’ as a putdown, I see the strength and beauty of the snowflake perfectly in the being of a new generation of youth who are connected, who do build upon each others information and inspiration … Yes, certainly through the world wide web yet more importantly through the interconnectivity of their open hearts. When people of any age are willing to learn and grow from each other as well as be inclusive … gorgeous, global structures can form. Not really so different than the chaotic yet divinely ordered beauty birthing snowflakes. Truly, the science of snowflakes is a spiritual experience! If your interested, here’s another very short YouTube video from the BBC where they refer to the “miracle of engineering” evident in the snowflake formation process:

We can see miracles in everything as Einstein said. And perhaps the greatest invitation and inspiration of the heart is to see the sacred in the cries for Love ~ like the putdowns and prevalent negativity. Sacredness is ever present and omnipresent on this pretty planet though I have found sacred awareness often requires some qualities that are often put down in this society … slowness, softness and surrender for instance. Using these helps me to see and be the sacred. Centered in sacred awareness is the surest place to spiritually parent from. So whatever hearts you are tending to ~ of any age ~ and of course including your own ~ may you go slow enough to see with the soft eyes of the heart. In surrendering into the softness, may you be as strong and resilient as snowflakes ~ yes, even when they melt as the ultimate surrender! We are all in divine timing existence with phases of insistence, persistence and resistance in the circle of time … As we breathe in the beauty of snowflakes and the spiritual sense therein, let us also celebrate the science and scientists. Let us embrace all the truth we can, near and far, in continuing to co-create the miracles we are. I leave you with one more YouTube video from It’s Okay to Be Smart, The Science of Snowflakes. Namaste Miraculous Sparkling Sacred Snowflake!

Disciple Of The Divine: Voices, Vibrations, Valentines

Namaste Disciple of Love, Voice of the Divine, Vivacious, Visionary Valentine!

Hoping this finds you feeling more loved than lonely, more serene than unsettled, more blessed than stressed. I have been doing a dance of resistance and insistence all week as the alchemist empath I am (that I Am!) keeps finding more and more voices and choices I want to speak to in this anniversary blog. Our roots of Love and Spiritual Family Literacy celebrations began 10 years ago this week online  as the New Thought Families website and in this little blog here 6 years ago. So yes, this Love filled post is longer than long … feel free to scroll through for whatever will help you along in staying divinely strong!I continue devotion to giving spiritual choice and voice as Love expressed especially for children and families in daily Play & Pray, as well as reconstructing some old features and introducing some new ones including the little visual face lift here. So! This special edition post gives some attention to Black History, the Season Of Peace, some Peaceful Reconstructionists, the power of words, education, literacy, our current, constant callings to civil rights … And! The innocent inspirations of imagination with and for our children!

And so it is I offer the following information and celebration through the latest perspiration in manifesting inspiration! AKA, putting hands to prayer!

Season of Peace

We have long participated in the Association for Global New Thought’s Season of Peace and Non-Violence. This is the 20th year for this grassroots effort celebrated in the 64 days marking the memorial anniversaries of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. The Season,  January 30th – April 4th, offers special programs and remembrances by many Unity, Church of Religious Science and other New Thought communities. As an independent artist and through New Thought Families, I have worked with youth in honoring ‘Peacemakers’ through drama, music, hands on “Peace Rocks’ and online, interactive ‘playsheets.’ The online offering of ‘Name That Peacemaker’ was first launched in 2010, and has been re-launched this month as ‘Peaceful Reconstructionists’.  Essentially, we honor great folk from history like Gandhi & Dr. King who peacefully reconstructed our society and world. Just because they acted peacefully, it doesn’t mean the process was peaceful ~ making waves usually isn’t ~ and it doesn’t mean they felt peaceful. Imagine yourself as Harriet Tubman on the Underground Railroad or Rosa Parks on the bus. We have a page on the website dedicated to each Reconstructionist and then interactive ‘playsheets’ online that help integrate the information and inspiration.

Black History: Truth Telling To Transform

The recent release of the movie, Hidden Figures tells of 3 black women who worked for NASA and were instrumental in putting a man on the moon. The systemic racism still inherent in our country has shifted enough that their story has now been told. YES! So many strong, truth telling voices of our ancestors and those still living yet perhaps their stories still not told! For instance, do you know Claudette Colvin? She was the first in Rosa’s movement who refused to give up her seat on the bus and the spirited teen, in fact, helped fuel Dr. King and Mrs. Parks. The true story is that Rosa Parks was not simply tired that day, though she had indeed had enough, the refusal to move and subsequent arrest were long in the making and young Claudette Colvin had a big part in it. “Truth is powerful and it prevails.” ~ Sojourner Truth

When new U.S. President Trump kicked off Black History Month on February 1st, he spoke of Frederick Douglass saying, ” … people will get to know him more and more …” And indeed they did ~ reportedly out googling him to the same day online birth announcement of Beyoncé! Yet, as Beyoncé wins her Grammys tonight and goes on to create a great buzz throughout her fan base ‘beehive’, let us continue to be inspired by the great abolitionist and early feminist of Frederick Douglass. He, along with Sojourner Truth  visited with Abe Lincoln during his presidency.

Oh the search for truth and reality has been more pronounced of late!  Yet, it remains paramount that we find the truth for ourselves and for our children. As spiritual parents and teachers, we must tell the truth to the best of our ability while allowing young children’s innocence to be protected. Though many aspects of our culture seemingly ignore it, our children deserve their innocence and the delights of imagination. Yet, we must also teach the truth including the continued revealing of so many hidden figures. Movies, stories, books, songs … this vast worldwide web, so many ways to tell the truth!

And! Remember, the power of words with your children as well as your inner child! Yes, in all the media and outside sources yet most importantly in the simple words we use with ourselves and each other. Be sure to express your divine shine, Valentine!

Children’s Books!

Though the storybooks of old were often (literally!) grim, many of the famous Grimms’ Fairy Tales like Rapunzel, Snow White & Cinderella continue to be spun and respun to this day. In response to civil injustice, many lesser known children’s books have been published and linger still in the web!

 The Gospel Of Slavery is an illustrated antislavery children’s alphabetary in verse, by Iron Gray (New York: T.W. Strong, 1864). Digitized by the Antislavery Literature Project, there is a sample page below. Visit their site and read all of The Gospel of Slavery!

 

L Stands for Liberty Know you the bell

That ’76 sounded so nobly and well?

Or know you that soon was developed a flaw,

By Freedom’s assertion of Slavery Law?

“Created all equal.” — ” Excepting the black,”

From States of the Union the answer came back.

Then cracked the big bell. Vainly chipped to the core,

No “compromise measures” its tone could restore,

And the prophecy stands, though the bell, in its fall,

Now silently hangs in Old Liberty Hall!

The bell referred to, cast in 1753, has on it the inscription, “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”– Lev. xxv. 10. Was this a prophecy? That bell announced the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was afterwards cracked — I know not the date. Occasional use on national anniversaries increased the difficulty. Chipping, so as to separate the vibrating edges, failed to remedy the mischief. It now hangs in Independence Hall.

Just as I am reviewing and renewing the Peaceful Reconstructionists, I am also re-visiting …

KidSpeak!

Our children have a wealth of (spiritual) wisdom if only we let them speak and we truly listen!

In our traditional literacy sections of Leaping Literacy Library, the Laurie StorEBooks often focus on a repetition of a vowel sound. Yet, they can sometimes also speak to very big concepts as in the short I celebration, Skin. This one was (finally!) re-illustrated last week with huge gratitude to the free stock images ~ and generous photographers ~ at Pixabay. The video version is below and here at Vimeo! Skin features my Laurie Story ‘Mother Goose Rap’!

Laurie StorEBookTV: Skin

Our Leaping Literacy Library is well stocked with Laurie StorEBooks, songs, videos. Marvelous Members access all that’s there now and being added like our Reconstructionist scripts. Should you be interested in supporting us and utilizing all that’s there, sign up here and use this coupon code to save 40%: WeeFeeMe  There’s also a Free Sign Up there for our Free Shelf and lots in the Library and on the sites that you don’t need to sign up or log in for!So many ways to play and pray, sing and wing, read and feed … mind, body, Spirit!

Truth Telling Today!

I am so grateful for great journalists that press on in doing their best to tell the truth. Our Peaceful Reconstructionist Ida B Wells used the power of the word in newspapers reaching many who back in the day had no other way. Unfortunately, one of Ida’s biggest cries was against lynchings and todays Black Lives Matter is not so different than that. The dizzying first 3 weeks of the new White House administration has millions of us praying up, standing up, speaking up for civil rights. “They can shut me up, but they can’t change the truth,” – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren Forgive me, if you’re looking for something without politics; I can’t seem to ignore or be silenced by so much of what is happening and the abolitionists and Peaceful Reconstructionists featured in this post wouldn’t want me to! There is so much happening towards justice and injustice … I mostly want to just encourage us all to dig deep, find good journalists we trust for the truth and keep making informed, inspired decisions about what and how we share with our kids.

As much as you can, ask questions and get answers! Many of us knew instantly that the Travel/Muslim Ban was a racist wrong. We take heart in all those rallying for our brothers and sisters from the 7 banned countries. We sing with Woody Guthrie and all the folkies at airports singing, “This Land Is Your Land!” And! I was so informed and inspired by the wonderful podcast from This American Life that gives much explanation and real inspiration as well as sorrow inducing testimony from so many affected by the ban. Within the program, is information explaining how extensive the refugee vetting process is  ~ some have been in the process for nearly 10 years! Their time had come yet the ban got in the way. They were unable to board that final plane … and had no life left to turn back to. I hope with the judges stay, they have now been able to come after all?!  I read another first person account of implementing the vetting process and another first person account of being a refugee, now American citizen. The voices are out there, the choices are ours!

Senate Democrats have had battle after battle trying to block cabinet positions for the new administration ~ from the unqualified to the downright directly destructive. I won’t rehash the details here too much yet I applaud the efforts of Senator Warren and her colleagues to persist ~ as in the 24 hour round of speeches urging Republicans not to vote for Betsy DeVoss for Secretary of Education ~ a person who clearly has no knowledge of the public school system at best and believes it needs to go, at worst. At this and every juncture, I breathe deep into my belief of divine order … always and in all ways.

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. ~ Frederick Douglass

Our government’s decisions are having inevitable ripples into our homes and hearts and it should be so! We must be awake and aware and activated ~ if only, and perhaps especially in prayer! Prayer from the chair as well as with hands and feet! I know I am in daily energy re-management when I feel my heart breaking ~ like for the people of Standing Rock and the reinstatement of action on the Dakota Access pipeline. Josh Fox has a recent post on DAPL where he interviews Water protector and lawyer Chase Iron Eyes who said, “Something greater than ourselves has moved us and it started with prayer. That prayer came from human beings but it’s the natural elements in the universe that have their own spiritual authority. They’re older than us. Our stories, our cosmologies tell us this and kind of give us that center from which to find our place, you know.”

Vibrations To Align With the Divine!

So! I know a lot of us ~ especially those empathetic alchemist types like me! ~ can easily get into anger or despair over our current threats to humanity and the environment. Yet! There are many transformational tools we can employ to stay in line with our innate divine shine. And this higher vibration place is where we can certainly do the most good … as well as feel better than the lower vibrational, reactionary places so understandably prevalent. There are wonderful YouTube Channels dedicated to high vibrational music. So much gratitude for them! Here are a few of my faves:

Zen Life Relax

Power Thoughts Meditation Club

Elke Nehler & Freedom Consciousness

And! Love the archangel tracks from Well Being Academy! Just have the music on in the background of your day for positive results. Personally, I rarely use headphones yet always feel the benefits! This is a great way to bring harmony to yourself, your home, your family. Feel free to feel them on for size ~ trust what you feel with each and flow with the ones that feel best! Also watch for the reactions of others in your home ~ including pets! ~ and adjust accordingly.

 Vintage Voices ~Valentines!

Vintage Voices, for us, includes honoring some of the aforementioned  Reconstructionists with the online playsheet games for free, no log in, online usage. We are also putting some of the Reconstructionist drama scripts into publication; they will be available in the Library in the coming weeks. And! I have a large filing cabinet of vintage voices from the old family home and store I have worked on cleaning out ~ fruits of my labor and the upside to family hoarders?! I have been wanting to put these out ever since I laid eyes and hands on them!

Valentines from the 1920’s! These amazing beauties are multi-dimensional pop-up cards that are truly fun and gorgeous! Since you can’t tell from the pictures, I put a (rough) video together ~ with 20’s music! Yes, all the little cuties are fair skinned which, in light of today’s discussions makes me wonder … do Vintage Valentines that portray more of our citizenship exist?! Mmmm … Still and all, these Valentines are works of art and so it is a joy to share them in this video here and on Vimeo.

Thank you so much for sharing (some of) these choices and voices with me, Love! Namaste Divine Valentine!