Freeing Graceful Hearts In Joy, Kindness, Love

Namaste Grateful Glimpses Of Heart!

Happy Mother’s Day Monday! I return to this sacred cyber space after what seems like a lifetime away … March and April mark the only months since February 2011, that I have not been here to express. You have been missed! And whether or not, you have noticed or missed me or this space, thank you so much for being here … here and now.

I am gratefully here this mindful Monday moment in May … Here in gratitude for life’s garden ever growing gracefully on. For the essence of creation, co-creation, and motherhood, I offer this song …

Yes, our Earth Mama is always singing Love’s song and my own mama sang so sweetly to me from birth. I passed that sharing of song onto my son. As he prepares to leave for college, the song plays on in our hearts as I am comforted by the divine knowing that the song of Love does indeed sing on and on.Grace flows through us, as us, if we allow it! As I prepare the heart of my home for the ’empty nest’, I reach through moments of deep grief with faith for the fullness of grace. All of life goes and grows at the pace of grace. Yet! We can experience something so different when we are out of balance, stressed, and out of sync with the gratitude of how we are blessed. It basically comes down to saying a grateful YES in every breath! Allowing this transition of my son’s departure sometimes feels anything but graceful. Like an unwanted divorce, I am gifted the opportunity of renewal and new beginnings … whether I fully embrace it or not! And! My son and I are doing the natural dance of tense tango at times as we navigate his departure. You know, me the mama still wanting to control and fix things, he the 18 year old man cub saying “I got this, back off.” We are actually more good and loving than not yet the tension can surface in its capacity to facilitate the leaving and weirdly, perhaps, alleviate the grieving. You know, if our children were the same sweet 7 year olds, we would never want them to go and they would never want to leave! Evolution demands something different. The same pattern is playing out with the elders I care for. As they slowly die and I devote time and energy to their journey, I know that I will miss them less when they are gone. When a soul lets go of a vibrant, active body and life, we feel shock and can miss them greatly. When a soul plays out their lifetime in a body and Spirit less and less engaged and capable, (for me) it becomes so much easier to let go and bless them on their way.

Evolution is to let go of what was so we are better able to embrace what is! The other piece of family life that is coming to completion with the help of angels and ancestors is the cleaning out and selling of the old family store and stocks. In the spring of 2015, I posted pictures and commentary of some of that journey, the storyline runs through 50 or more years, and generations. The most beautiful, divine order piece of the story is that the old store and home is being purchased by a dear man who will restore it back … he’s keeping the old animal heads and even vowing to re-paint the family name on the window! This will be such a gift to the community as well as the family. I am in awe of the divine order grace. I will save the majority of the wrap up for another day yet suffice it to say, this marvelous May, our ancestors are being set freer on their way! And me too! This summer, I will be turning back to some intended work to add interesting, inspirational Vintage Voices to the Leaping Literacy Library!

Memorable Musings! These handwritten newspapers from the 1930’s tell quite a story of yesteryear ~ including my dad cleaning 400 rabbits coups for his Uncle Al for $1.50 per week!

The Leaping Literacy Library! As reported, we are replaying our ABC’s for Humanity from 2016 this 2018 calendar year on our daily Play & Pray Calendar. My efforts to change the Free Shelf every 2 weeks in keeping with the letters has fallen somewhat short. Hence our May Shelf is holding I J K! Yay ~ let’s play!

Though I have allowed a pull in too many (see, I am not enough!) directions, my heart and life path remain dedicated to the realms of imagination and literacy!

As part of my life’s work, I continue to chip away at new and revised Laurie StorEBooks for the Leaping Literacy Library. Here is the revised King Of Ing which so makes my heart sing! I hope it will help your heart at least hum as well!

King Of Ing Laurie StorEBook
Runs 4:57
Password: KILLLShi

So much to ing this spring! Yes I am creatively and spiritually blessed even with the life stress! At times, life has been more than overwhelming in terms of keeping up with Jeremiah, dad & the elders, ancestor treasure business resolving, my work at Spiritual Life Center and me staying true to me and to my work life callings. As I align with the shine of my divine design, I know JOY is a worthy barometer!

I have given notice at Spirtual Life Center that I cannot continue in the capacity I was hired and have been serving this last year. Being even a part time Youth & Families Director has pulled me too far away from my work here at Creative Spirit Families. This summer, I will be a consultant for SLC, putting in place the power points, materials and resources for the program yet only facilitating it myself, 1 Sunday a month instead of every Sunday. The Center is partnering with us this year for our annual Feathers Of Freedom Family Camp ~ woo hoo! ~ You join us too?! ~ And!  I will continue to shape monthly offerings for the program found on their Youth & Families page. Here is May’s video:

So! Life gracefully grows on! What have I learned and what have I deepened this ing spring? If I do not put me, my dreams, my soul callings 1st, no one else will! And in fact, others will increasingly demand my attention, care, time, talent, treasure. I am the co-creator who draws the boundaries ~ or not! I tend to put everyone else first as so many women and mothers do. Why? Low self esteem? Ingrained servitude? Cultural should? In the reflection gifts of the pond, I am reminded that young children are some of our best teachers of how to be on the spiritual path. In fact, they openly show us what being connected to the divine looks like. They are the inspiration for master teachings:

Be here now

Follow your heart

See the world for it’s divine essence through incredulous wonderment

As children of the Creator, we are all children and we all seek:
Time, Attention, Love. We want to be seen and heard, encouraged and supported.

And in the midst of all the ways we triumph and fail … again and again … We are ever called to carry on with TLC and kindness for ourselves and all our kindred connections!

Wherever and however you are this mindful May moment (or any magical moment you happen by this sacred, cyber space), my ultimate wish for you and all living beings is that we allow grace to guide our hearts and homes … ever freeing us to Carry Kindness and Live Love! Thank you again for being here. Namaste, Love!

Calendarize more freedom, joy, and family fun! Join us for Feathers Of Freedom Family Camp!

 

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Evolving Energies!

Namaste Vivacious, Visionary Valentines!

Greetings this fleeting last breath of February! I am here, in this mindful moment, in large part motivated by not missing the mark on the month. This blog was birthed in February 2011 and I have been here every month and couldn’t miss this one! Deep breath of commitment, surrender, pause for purpose … Truth is, my life hasn’t really had room for this blog of late … hence the last moment markers on the last few months’ dates. Time to realign the shine of this divine design? Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe so. If you are here, at any divine shine moment, thank you. Let us have a heart to heart.

We are all devoted to something. Some of us devoted to too many things. Yes, let us all be devoted to humanity. In the oneness blessed of who we be, let us pray for the tapestry of hearts that is the collective body we are home to. It is easy and perhaps natural to be wrapped up in what is right before us with no mind or heart space left for ‘others’. Tragedies occur, come into our consciousness, we pray for those affected and then we necessarily move on. Yet! Devotion demands diligence. Continued prayers and caring. Whether our thoughts, words, actions seem to have an impact on humanity’s heart or not, we continue to show up in the smallest of ways … with Love, in Love, as Love. We do because devotion makes a difference ~ if in no other heart than our own. We are, after all, heart energy. Holy Creator’s breath of Love expressed. With a mindful, loving presence, we can manage our energy with everything from food choices, thoughts, balanced choices of time for work, sleep, spiritual practice and play. I have not been visually online much at all the last few weeks (months?) as I show up for so many other areas of life and strive for balance and beauty within and in all I am dedicated and devoted to. Facebook is something I seemingly abandoned mostly out of life and energy overwhelm. The swirling energies of social media became too much for me to successfully manage so I just stepped (way!) back. Increased peace and balance are worth it and working for me, for now. Our lives continue to be an evolution of old & new, light & dark, good & bad. With Love in the center, divine order is always unfolding. I still have a fair amount of energy going to the elders all dying slow, slow deaths (like this blog?! ~ maybe ~). I see what it is to stop caring as the literal energy in the body lessons to the point of inability to show up for things that were once important, or even inspirational. Juxtaposed to my now 18 year old son in the thick of scholarship applications, local speech contests, drama and band performances ~ he like I have been for so much of life ~ lending his young, zealous energies here, there and everywhere! Balance. Angels and ancestors whisper to learn from the old, bring their strength and Love to the new. As I have let go of some things and still struggle to do half of what calls, I appreciate the divine dance of divinity as it plays out in life’s infinity. Dying and living, co-creating on all levels, we are humanity. At the heart of how I express life and Love these days is in the elevation of vibration ~ in work, play, everyday conversations. If we can somehow leave peeps the better for our interactions … sometimes I am golden in this and other times less so. We know how people, situations, news, views make us feel. Our inner Grace Positioning System will always let us know whether we are elevating and being elevated or going the other direction. With that information, we often have the freedom to choose whether to continue or disengage for the sake of our highest and best. There is no better playground to practice this than in our minds and hearts. Feeling good and positive and elevated can be work yet with the right transformative tools, it can be fairly easy and even enJOYable. And when it’s not, we keep our 3rd eyes on the prize knowing we will get to that feel good place of Love and it is well worth the journey. Indeed, it is the only way to go for ultimate happiness and elevation of ourselves ~ and humanity!Leaping Literacy Library! It is a place I am dedicated to be! I keep working on what’s there and inching towards what I want to be there! Our Free Shelf is freshly stocked with E’s as we change letters every 2 weeks in keeping with our For Humanity Daily Play & Pray Calendar at New Thought Families. There are special invitations and videos with the Season For Peace as well as inspirational game pages with Peaceful Reconstructionists. Even though I haven’t been making room for the Blog, the other regular features of the websites have been receiving as much TLC as I can muster. The daily Play & Pray celebrates 10 years in May and it remains the truest invitation I can issue you … a playful opportunity to be in your heart each day.As we find ourselves in this year’s Lenten season with Equinox and Easter coming this way, may we all entrust everlasting essence as we shape our days. We are made of Love and all the ways we choose to express this divinity has an impact on humanity and life’s energy. From any and all darkness, may we align with the shine of our divine design and our Spirits Rising ~ anytime! Thank you again for being here. Thank you for continuing to rise into your highest Love expressed. Namaste, Love Divine, Namaste!

Awareness, Acceptance, Allowance: Being Conscious!

Namaste Awake and Aware Allowing, Accepting Ones!
How you BE this conscious moment?! I greet you in the names of acceptance and allowance with a big breath of beautiful, bountiful becoming and creativity caressed compassion awareness. As the first month of 2018 draws to a close, I find myself here with too much to say and a dedicated determination to align with the shine of my divine design to the best of my capabilities at this time. In less poetic terms, I am accepting and allowing messy me to post here less than perfectly according to my 2018 plans … for humanity! Today is the scheduled 3rd post of the year with the courageous, compassionate Letter C. And since Abundant A & Beautiful B were swept away in my January days, we will (eventually!) hear from each of our sacred ABCs this fine day. Today, the POTUS of our fair land gives his 1 year anniversary State Of The Union Address. I am choosing not to tune in as I have heard more than enough and will hear some highlights later, I’m sure. Instead, I revisited some January pictures and a new song born out of the Martin Luther King March For The Dream and the 2nd annual Women’s March. I put prayers to feet in both of them locally with my 17 year old son. In the Women’s March, he brought his guitar and we sang some ~ lots of ‘This Little Light Of Mine’ easily drawing verses from the myriad of colorful, creative, passionate signs. Here’s some pictures in a little video where I am singing a new song I wrote this month with pictures from the 2 marches; one voice, many feet! The voice is rough yet so is the journey! There are also a few pictures starting near the end from around the world curtesy of generous photographers at Pixabay.

Ah yes, always so much to co-create ~ consciously or unconsciously! This day also marks the beginning of AGNT’s 20th Season For Peace which  is an educational, media and grassroots awareness campaign spanning the January 30th and April 4th memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will once again run our 64 Ways In 64 Days on our New Thought Families daily Play & Pray Calendar. Here is an excerpt from today’s calendar where co-creative C takes center stage:

Ask: What is mine to co-create?
Affirm: I Am that I Am the Co-Creator of my life!
Keep consciously creating today ~ whatever your heart is calling you to. Ask your heart what it wants to create … a picture? A song? A new idea? If you feel happy and excited ~ or even a little scared, it’s probably yours to do. So speak the first word of it, make the first line … know that all of creation is with you to help co-create your goodness!

Yes, our ‘For Humanity’ calendar and focus on our ABC’s is back for 2018 after turbulent 2017. Our Leaping Literacy Free Shelf is set to change every 2 weeks in keeping with the calendar and with this blog. Um … about that … it has taken me all of January to get some mojo back after the TOO MUCHNESS of last year … and well, the To Do’s never really stop with a roll of the calendar year! Last night was a major fundraising concert for Jeremiah’s high school concert and jazz bands so of course I had my hands and feet in that … finishing strong! My boy turns 18 in a few weeks and off to college in a few months so between him and the elders, my time continues to be streeeeetched!

Yet! Here we are! So let’s embrace those sacred ABC’s!

A! Activating abundance through appreciation awareness! There are many ways to practice awareness ~ from self to society. The marches are a great expression of awareness. When we turn our awareness to appreciation ~ in presence and practice, life becomes a bigger celebration! When we appreciate, we activate more and more of what feels good and calls us to celebrate! Appreciate the air, your hands and what they do, your loved ones, your neighbors and community. The more practiced we become at appreciation, the better able we are to appreciate even the things we don’t especially like ~ for their place in the divine whole. And even if your awareness can’t accept that one, know for sure that appreciation will undoubtedly raise your vibration keeping you happier, healthier and more prone towards celebration. Thereby better able to accept and deflect the atrocities and more readily allow your heart to awaken into more of the truth you truly be! This month at Spiritual Life Center, we practiced being awake and aware. We talked about being the kind of awake that opens our hearts into knowing more of the divine essence we truly be. Our Feature Creature Teachers were Bear from the dreamtime cave reminding us that in the stillness, can be the greatest awareness. Snake taught us to be aware of what we need to let go of ~ shedding the old so we can embody the new. Ant reminds us to be aware of each other ~ what is ours to do in community ~ with patience and strength! And last Sunday, we soared with Eagle who sees the big picture with sharp eyes teaching us to see our highest and best and to aim high where we build our nest. In being aware, our mind is a nest, our heart is a nest … we can aim high by nurturing them in the high vibration of appreciation! Use the tool of appreciation to center and re-center in the goodness and blessings of your life. I promise the more you use it, the more it will become 2nd nature! Yes we are blessed … so enter Letter B!
Our breath is the built in tool for centering into our blessings. Taking a deep breath in any moment can calm us down and help us cope. There are many ways to use the breath and any yogi will tell you, they all impact the body, mind and spirit differently! I learned the “breath of grace” years ago listening to Sonia Choquette and I still love it! Try it! Just blow out like you are blowing out the candles on your birthday cake … yes? Yes, blessed! Our holy Creator birthed us with a breath of Love and we can rebirth ourselves any and every moment! Our Creator also gifted us with a beautiful planet. Beauty is always beckoning for us to behold!Beauty is a way we can align with the divine design of this world and of ourselves. The flowers above are China Lilies also known as Narcissus which refers to being a narcissist which in this case I choose to see as a positive. These are my favorite flowers for their cheery appearance and intoxicating fragrance. They courageously bloom early; there have been lots around here this January. Their bountiful beauty beckons us to behold their beauty as a mirror to our own (hence the story of the narcissist associated with them). As this brief bout with B shows, it’s all what we believe! If we bring our sacred awareness into play, we will perceive the beauty in our surroundings and feel the blessings! Conscious Co-Creation!
Of course, all of our spiritual tools are always available. Some days or weeks we have great self mastery in using them. Other times, we fall back into forgetfulness. Courageously on the path, we just realign our consciousness as often as we can and then put conscious compassionate action into our feet, hands, and plans! My own plans seem in slow mo yet these last weeks have been about chipping away at lots of unfinished business ~ like finishing 20+ alliteration titles for the Leaping Literacy Library! It’s one thing to create them yet without the formatting and publication, there’s no way to communicate them. My co-creation celebrations require a lot of compassion … and the courage to just keep blooming through the cracks!

Well, my Love, this long post has rolled over into the absolute last day of January! A blue moon night, we will have no full moon in February and 2 in March making for another blue moon (the blue moon refers to the 2nd full moon in a calendar month). This beautiful planet is ever ready to bathe us in beauty even though we continue to be broken as humanity. Yet! We also continue to awaken and to be aware, to be compassionate and to care. We continually rise … march, speak, reach. Thank you. I truly Love and appreciate you. For being here. For being there. For being awake and aware. Whatever you are co-creating this day, this week, this year, keep believing in the blooming of your beauty … breathe it in … ah … Namaste, Love!

 

December’s Divine Dance

Namaste Oh Holy Love Light Shining Bright!

Delayed December greetings of lighted Love in a fleeting farewell to 2017! Here’s to the run on To Do’s of the December season of lights, packages, and fa la la’s that are counter to the winter Solstice invitation to go inward, get quiet and still. Here’s to the millions of moments that have manifested magic and mayhem and everything in between this turbulent year. And here’s to focusing on the good … small, tiny strokes of goodness on the landscape of all that has been and continues to unfold.

Simple Gifts!

Pictured below are small, handmade Christmas gifts; given and received. They serve as a reminder and an invitation to simple gifts of the heart. My lovely angel assistant at Spiritual Life Center, Katelynn, not only shows up big every Sunday, this Christmas she came bearing tremendous tiny gifts she made with her own heart infused hands! She had made me a little journal book for my birthday and these amazing little Christmas scene boxes; she made the boxes, painted them, created tiny figures on the lid and provided the’ snow’ for the scene. Precious! Thank you angel Katelynn! Katelynn’s gifts helped me complete a handmade heart gift for my friend and dad caregiver helper; I took 2 small walnuts she had picked up with her helping hands, then painted them gold and made them into earrings for her with my heart flow hands ~ she loved them and felt the flow of angels and ancestors. And so it is with the circle of inspiration!

Simple Lifts!

After more than a decade of Decembers, our fake Christmas tree did not grace our living room this season. Maybe it was the overload of fake news this year but I had let the tree go in a summer cleaning spree vowing this Christmas would provide a tree adventure. At my dad’s ranch, his 100 year old cedar had sprouted some babies that were growing in the cow field. They had to go so we had several little trees. These pictures do not do them justice yet again, the small touches of Jeremiah and I ceremoniously chopping them down for our house and dads + the lighting up of a live branch was actually a happy departure from what had become our tree tradition. Lovely branches, lovely life! I smile with these less than glamourous pictures now … sitting in the quiet of the library with Jeremiah at the same table doing his college application essays due in days/hours. We have left our annual music camp for a few hours to take care of these words … him with life decision deadlines that have been in the hopper for months now, me with staying true to this blog with some account of December’s deLIGHT! Truth is, this season, and this year has gifted us (especially me) many challenges and it is good to get away. We had a bit of a sunny walk on the beach a few days ago before heading into the redwood tree vortex of music camp …

December Dance!

As aforementioned, the winter darkness of December and its calling to stillness is often drowned out by our holiday To Do’s. For my part, the closing of the studio mid-month amid all the rest of my ongoing commitments, left little time for all the shopping et al. Yet I celebrated at Spiritual Life Center, took grammy to see lights, fixed a brunch and a dinner for the elders and the young ones and got it all cleaned up … with some presents in between. Lots of work with little time for rest left me spotlight blessed! With clarity and non-judgement, I deeply understand how my life choices have been affecting me, my dreams, and future. I SEE! I AM FREE!

December Divinity! Free Potentially!
Here in lies the holy light message of this month; the tenderheartedness of Christmas and the season of light is indeed a perfect spotlight into our lives year round. How we do one thing is usually how we do all things; through conscious awareness we can reshape our lives … enter New Year’s resolutions! I am embracing them for 18 with a dedicated devotion to discipline ~ putting feet, hands, and plans to the vision I see so clearly now!

I have fairly well mastered overwhelm and over commitment … so enough already! I am enough and can stop trying to prove otherwise! The tears of this season and this turbulent year are bringing the clarity needed for the puzzle pieces to reshape the steps needed on my soul’s journey …

Divinity & Humanity!

Our collective journey is much the same … the atrocities and cries for justice this ’17 can help propel us into more of who we are called to be in our highest expression of divinity in humanity. We owe it to ourselves and our children to keep rising with persistent power and potentiality ~ to live our highest humanity as divinity. The shadows of 17 have loomed large so hopefully we can all see more of who we have to be to live free.

Part of my clarity, has me returning to spiritual ABC’s and Humanity in the coming year which will bring me here with more regularity.In this moment, I am turning to Jeremiah’s essay edits and returning to music camp to sing and play the rest of the day and over the cusp of welcoming 18. I have some big plans yet it is all best played out in small moments.

Whatever calls to you, in the small or the tall, may you trust yourself to implement it all. And may we all stand together for truth, beauty, justice and the infinite possibilities of humanity! I wish you a continued season of Light and a prosperous New Year filled with the realities of your potentialities. Namaste, Love!

Happy ThanksLiving!

Namaste Gorgeous Glimpses Of Gratefulness Expressed!

Happy Thanksgiving! Happy ThanksLiving! I greet you in the name of all that is holy this holy-day holiday of our November celebration post. November! The month that beckons us to remember our abundant blessings. When we live gratitude as a way of life, we are Thanks Living. Thanks Living Is Gratitude Giving! Let me sing that for you … ~!:

So the principle of trusting “that all of life is gifting me” is often easier sung than done especially when the ‘gifts’ of life don’t feel like that and can even feel like anything but! And this month, I personally, and we collectively, have had PLENTY of practice … in seeing the gifts and being in that trust. And yet when we give thanks for every little thing, it makes it easier to see the gifts in the yuckies. Life is always offering us opportunities to heal our wounds and fears opening and allowing more Love & light to live through us. Last month, we talked about the zealous yes ever calling us to be Creation’s breath of Love expressed. When our world and personal lives get increasingly heavy with pain body, rising up can be challenging at best. That’s why it is vital to secure a spiritual practice that keeps us tethered to our inner wisdom, strength, and innate ability to live on purpose, in passion, in happiness.From the national collective of mass shootings, environmental protection rollbacks in favor of cooperate greed and unsustainable dirty energy sources to the increasing threats of injustice towards the majority of people under the millionaire mark, and the #Me Too movement, there is a volume of yuckies we could dive into. For my part, I have too many #Me Too stories that have been shared in various measures over the decades yet my November moments have been reckoning with increasing overwhelm and over commitment that finally starting taking a toll physically and mentally. For weeks I have been striving for a “To Don’t” List as a means of self preservation. I will share the biggest story from this out picturing as an example of being in ThanksLiving in the midst of turmoil and pain.

So! As told here, I opened a Creative Spirit Families studio a few months ago and have had some magical moments singing, playing, creating with kids and families. The demands of doing the classes, keeping the refrigerator stocked and all supplies flowing in the studio on top of caretaking the elders, shepherding my busy teen applying for colleges, designing and implementing Sunday programs for SLC + doing the supplies and admin there, left zero time and energy for the production work I had intended and the necessary marketing to get more participation in the classes to cover the rent, much less my time and talents. Whew! If that run on sentence left you in the least confused or overwhelmed, welcome to my breakdown! 🙂
Still, to get to the point of letting the studio go, the universe (and my ‘human behind the curtain’ co-creative subconscious) had to gift me with a very low turnout for the second session of classes. My ego was doing major tangos trying to dodge the blame and shame I was directing towards me instead of graciously accepting the clarity of the definite ‘To Don’t”! It culminated before school one morning fixing Jeremiah’s breakfast and getting a text from my ‘biggest supporter’ that had very real life conflicts resulting in her saying they were only doing the first half of the session. I started crying and at Jeremiah’s request spilled it all out with the spoken understanding that I knew it was for the highest and he replying, “Sorry you’re disappointed mom but I’m glad you’re taking it on the chin.” I thanked him and emoted some more which prompted him to come and put his man size arms around me and start singing the 3rd verse of Kate Wolf’s Give Yourself To Love. I tearfully joined in and we sang the 3rd verse and chorus together:

Love is born in fire. It’s planted like a seed.
Love can’t give you everything but it gives you what you need.
Love comes when you’re ready, Love comes when you’re afraid.
It’ll be your greatest teacher, the best friend you have made.

So give yourself to Love if Love is what you’re after.
Open up your heart to the tears and laughter.
Give yourself to Love. Give yourself to Love.

~ From Kate Wolf’s song, Give Yourself To Love

I thanked him from the depth of my being. We told each other “I love you” and my 17 year old man cub left for school. I breathed in a deep breath of divine order ThanksLiving feeling infinitely blessed that I had helped raise this human ~ I’ve done something right! And the truth is the studio was/is right in many ways and it is also right to let it go now. I will fully enjoy the next few weeks of classes being in my fullest ThanksLiving possible!

And so it is that all parts of life are working for good. The more we can focus on the good, all the little things, the more appreciation flows through us and the happier we feel! ThanksLiving, like all of our spiritual practices are just that … a practice that we nurture daily. Thanksgiving and ThanksLiving EVERY day!

At Spiritual Life Center, our youth program has been centered on abundance this November with Buffalo, Hummingbird, and Turkey as our Feature Creature Teachers. One of our activities last Sunday was to write some things we are grateful for on each finger of our foam hands ~ with more time, and as a home activity, it’s great to trace and cut your own hands for this. The added time and attention to your own hands opens up even more awareness and gratefulness for the lives we are thanks living! And yes, of course, big hands too! As pictured, the hands work as a wonderful turkey tail! Like always, we had plenty of options for the turkeys including feathers and paint dotted with fingertips or spread with a plastic knife for the feather effect. It is fun to be us! At SLC, at the studio and even at today’s family Thanksgiving celebration, I have been offering creative opportunities like this … just some crafty, shiny somethings to put heart and hands to, to express. Through creativity, we let our divinity and spirituality flow!

And so I go with a mix of new co-creations, traditions, To Do’s, To Dont’s, Ta Da’s, calendarizing with lots of trust, patience, forgiveness, allowance, and remembrance. Yes, we remember in November ~! This Sunday, Advent begins and so we sing with angels! Angels all around us and inside us, always ready and able to help center us!

Sing THIS right here and now! (Tune, What Child Is This?):

“What child is this who lives in me …

In my busyness lies sleeping.

Whom angels greet, singing so sweet …

The truth of the child they’re keeping.

This, this is consciousness.

Christ light awakening, shining bliss.

This, this is consciousness.

I wake up and I shine who I am.”

Our November Free Shelf for Leaping Literacy Library is up for another week with  lots of ThanksLiving invitations celebrating traditional, creative, and spiritual family literacy!

Whatever To Do’s and To Don’ts call to you this holy season, may you be aligned with your angel guidance for days and ways of true ThanksLiving! Namaste, Love!

PS!
I am making some progress on a long time vision and though this is a poor sample … I’m grateful for infinite possibilities!

Yes, I have a looooooong way to go with production quality, let’s smile anyway in some Turkey Talk ThanksLiving with the Piccolos! Thank you ALL for the blessing of you being part of holy Creation’s ThanksLiving!

Zealous Yes: Love Expressed

Namaste Zealous Breath Of Love & Life Expressed!

Thank you for being here this mindful moment; for saying yes to this breath, yes to this connection. In the midst of what seems a continuous swirl of suffering, injustice and instances of humanity at it’s most horriblest, let us persist in the ways we must resist and insist on experiencing glimpses of bliss despite our hurting hearts. Yes this last week has brought an array of madness moments building the momentum of the insanity of humanity with POTUS Trump actually throwing rolls of paper towels into the hands of devastated Americans in Puerto Rico and the Vegas shooter waging war on innocent civilians spraying a reign of terrifying bullets from on high. As we look on and then look away, we struggle inside and out with what to think, do, say. While some claim prayers are not enough, reaching for our holy Creator and the divinity, compassion, forgiveness inside us, is still some of the best of who we are divinely designed to be. Saying YES to reaching high is indeed, how we rise! And it can be SO challenging sometimes … I myself felt anger this week which is pretty rare for me. In our messy humanness, we feel and we deal. And we surrender, pray and reach high … and higher …

So what do we tell our children?

How can we best help our youngest navigate what we ourselves struggle with??!! The words of beloved Mr. Rogers ~ and his mother! ~ can help us all. Yes, we look for the helpers. Those are the ones that are embodying the highest in humanity. The ones called to rescue, resuscitate, renew … We tell our children to look for the helpers. We answer their questions and no more. We spare their innocence from more detail than they need; we shelter them from too many media images and messages. And we pray with our children ~ reaching on high to lift ourselves and others. We release the yuckies in healthy ways like sounding on our Leaping Literacy Free Shelf with SoulPlay Michelle Peticolas this month. We look for the good and focus there. We live the good we are blessed with, the best we can each day.

Reach High!

It is so ‘normal’ to feel sadness, anger, pain when our brothers and sisters are hurting. In today’s media age, we know so much (too much?!) in real time though of course there is always more we barely hear of (recent near genocide of Rowhingya Muslims). Most if not all of us are feeling degrees of overwhelm and it may seem somehow ‘wrong’ for us to feel good, feel joyful, much less passionate and zealous?! Let’s look deeper, shall we? If those of us who in this moment are safe, loved, surrounded by beauty & comfort are vibrating with sadness, anger or even rage and despair, who will lift humanity?! Think of it in Harry Potter terms; the Death Eaters could swallow one up, heart and soul yet be staved off with good, happy thoughts. We are not so different, friends. Though the level of chaos and darkness is seemingly growing, we must hold heart space of the highest order during these birthing pains of a more evolved, compassionate humankind. We are helpers. We are good. We are divinely designed to be a zealous YES of Love expressed!

No matter the personal or global deets of your days, say YES to your heart ~ listen and tap into … what makes your heart smile? What lights you up? What gives you a sizzling energy of YES ~?! THAT is ZEAL! Zeal is the energy of yes and pure potentiality!

 

For my part, I stay plenty busy being mighty mom and caretaking elders, especially my dad. These are jobs that can be exhausting and not always fulfilling. My most zealous yes is in creating ~

Above and below are ‘Peacock Cards’ I made for a spiritual literacy class this week ~ we circled up with peacock wisdom, made fruit peacock snacks and art and let this Creature Teacher speak to us of dreams. As you may or may not know, the regal beauty of the peacock embodies a wild voice ~ it kinda cries, squawks, laughs all at once! Like this pretty bird, we are all of it!
Circled up with the Peacock enlightenment!It can be so easy to ignore our hearts and live without zeal ~ seemingly saying no to our deepest desires simply by being too busy with the daily demands or by being engulfed in negativity by the gravity of current affairs. Again, I say, rise up against the ‘Death Eaters’ of insanity and gratefully embrace the goodness all around you and the goodness that is you. Reach into your Transformational Toolbox to let go of all the yuckies, surrender to your higher power and then start giving thanks for all you have and all you are. Reach high and feel the zeal ~ for your highest good and the highest good of all! Right action for what is yours to do will naturally follow your zealous YES!

Our October Leaping Literacy Library Free Shelf has a mix of home Zeal, Halloween, and a special SoulPlay PlayShop with Secrets of Life & Death’s Michelle Peticolas helping us release yuckies with sound. Great for all ages, release with us!My work/play of spiritual literacy has me developing new content for the Leaping Literacy Library as I play it out in the new Creative Spirit Families studio and at Spiritual Life Center on Sundays. Last Sunday, Squirrel was our Feature Creature Teacher. Squirrel works very hard, especially this time of year, gathering for the winter yet always seems to be at play. Rather than worrying about the approaching cold and scarcity, squirrel playfully gathers and stores with a seeming grateful joy.Life is good and the goodness of life is best felt when we stay grateful ~ and when we add some play into our work! When we look at life and death in the circle of time, we can see our lives for what we want them to be … productivity and potentiality played out passionately! Part of my calling keeps returning me to my long list of alliteration titles that are being completed in zig zag formation ~ given that last post, there were 2 new T titles and this time, the newest are from the outstanding letter O!

So! I will keep the words, Library, and live circles at play! And for my hurting brothers and sisters I will pray. With a bit of both play & pray in every breath, may we all, in our own ways, be a zealous YES of Love expressed! Namaste, Love!

Equinox Blessings Of Balance

Namaste this Equinox & Rosh Hashanah New Year Day!

In the Jewish New Year tradition, the ram’s horn is blown and apples are dipped in honey to intend and affirm a sweet life. In the Wicca celebration of Equinox, here it is the first day of fall with a Mabon harvest celebration and on the other side of the world, Ostara shines the birth of spring. This is the day of equal dark and light when the sun is directly above the equator, a balance point marking the turning of the wheel. From our New Thought Families Inspiration & Calendar pages, this marking of time has other cultural and religious manifestations and celebrations including these:

Shinto Shuki-sorei-sai
A memorial service similar to the March equinox service (Shunki-sorei-sai), this day is marked by the cleaning and purification of gravesites and the reverence of ancestors as kami, or divine spirits.

Buddhist Ohigon
A celebration of the equinox that is of particular importance to Japanese, Korean, and Tibetan Buddhists.  During this festival, the six Paramitas [virtues] are emphasized: generosity, morality, wisdom, honesty, endeavor, and patience.

Native American Autumn Feast
A day to honor the harvest end and the coming and going of the seasons, including prayers, songs, and the telling of tribal stories. 

Ritual and holi-days are ways we can re-align with the shine of our divine design. Even just taking a bird’s eye view like this of traditions that belong to others can help to inspire us. We all share the same sky and this equal time of sun and moon so it is an optimal time … to look at time. And BALANCE! And choices. Who do we give our time, talent, and treasure to? What energies are we feeding?For those of us who celebrate the New Year on January 1st, there are 100 days left now in this 2017! Those of us who live mindfully, awake and aware, this blessing of balance and the turning of the wheel is an opportunity to re-evaluate and intend for that sweet life. Sometimes this means making needed adjustments. Revisit the resolutions, if you made them. For those, like me, who do a lot, always good to take a grateful stock of what is & what has been, as well as what’s ahead. As parents, of children, (and some of us) of our own parents, milestones and markers are based on them and their lives. Tonight, my 17 year old Jeremiah is in the homecoming court at school. We are in the midst of college application preparations and Jeremiah is taking a crazy load of courses + drama and band. I am that mom helping with all of it as I also do for my parents, especially my dad, as well as tend to many of the facets of work that call to me, in part preparing for the big job of mom that comes with the child support paycheck to be past me in the circle of time. To that aim, our new Creative Spirit Families local studio began it’s first Creativity Classes & ChildSing this week, YAY! And! I have gotten back to my list of new alliteration titles that inadvertently got put on hold. Yay for Letter T! I am also in the midst of digitizing a re-illustration of a vintage Laurie Story about Hazel the tree to be shared at Spiritual Life Center this Sunday and onto the Free Shelf of the Leaping Literacy Library for the last week of September!Getting back to my Laurie StorEBooks needed to happen though, admittedly, juggling all that I do can be physically exhausting. For all of us, in this abundant culture, our fast paced lives compounded by the stresses of our global family, can really be all too much. Sooooooooooo … balance beckons! Doing what we can for our loved ones, our global family, and our own heart’s desires is a balancing act. We pray for so many devastated by hurricane, fire, earthquake. We give financially or otherwise if possible. There’s the other insanities of humanity playing out through world leaders, rebels causing genocide, hundreds of thousands of new refugees just in the last few weeks … whoa! BREATHE! BALANCE! As my Mabon song sings, “We rest in the dark, we renew in the light …”

Somehow … we find our balance in the turning of the wheel. For each of us, it is different. As Abraham Hicks and others teach, our feelings are a compass. Generally, when we feel stressed, we are out of balance. We either:

1. Think something or someone should be different than they are.
2. Think the way the situation is dictates what or how we are.
3. Think we do not have the power to change it.

We are well served to bring Byron Katie’s ‘The Work’ to any or all of those thoughts beginning with the question, “Is it true?”

In taking on the new studio, I have had to re-align with the pace of grace and the art of allowance. As a spiritual being, this is the only way to do so much and still be … Truly, “It is not I but the Spirit within me that doeth the work.” Of course, there have been many moments of messiness yet the more I allow grace, the more I am gratefully and abundantly flowing! In this balance of do and be, I am living my best me! At Spiritual Life Center last Sunday, our celebration of oak trees looked at how oaks, like no other tree allow insects of all kinds to breed upon them. Some of the oak balls or galls come from wasps laying their eggs in the bark. The tree forms the gall to protect itself and in turn protects the eggs. A beautiful blesson of oneness! For our art trees, we had puzzle pieces and the little turning of the wheel pastas to add ~ all of our beautiful children created very different, gorgeous trees.

And so it is that we create from the balanced blessings of our lives; integrating all we can of the good and the bad, the dark and the light, the sweetness and the bitterness, all found on the wheel. Here’s hoping that each of us and all of us are able to keep coming into the allowance of grace so we may indeed live the highest heart of humanity ~ no matter what the calamity! Namaste, Love!