Reverent Reality

Namaste Reverence Expressed!

Let us take a deep, honor filled breath of respect and reverence … for what it is to be here now, for what it is to be alive in these bodies individually and in the sea of humanity, and for what it is to be living on this AHmazing planet of beauty. Today’s post offers the transformational tool of reverent reality.

Also known as sacred awareness, reverent reality is living in a state of appreciation, respect and honor. From a spiritual perspective, I would add to standard dictionary definitions, the respect inherent in reverence is holy. Appreciative awareness of the sacred presence is indeed a divinely reverent, holy experience. The scale can be tiny or it can be grand … Let’s practice now! Here’s today’s (now yesterday’s!) daily Play & Pray:

Play:
See with the deep respect of reverence today! Start by closing your eyes and holding your hands over your eyes. Think about how good it is to see everything … call on your grateful heart to energize and activate your mind on just how good it is to see everything! Next, spread your fingers and open your eyes to just peek out … whatever you see, say, “WOW!” with the reverent reverie of an appreciation celebration. See how many times you can see and feel this wow vision of reverence as you go on your way today … Remembering just how good it is to see everything!

Pray:
Thank You holy One for the expanse of beauty in this life. I am in grateful awe at how beautiful everything is on this planet home. Our sacred mother earth is always bursting with beauty as are all the animals and people as we live Your Love expressed. I pray to see and know everything today with this deep respect and reverent appreciation as well as the reverie of celebration! I also pray for all beings in our global family to awaken just even a tiny bit more to see You and all Your beauty this moment, this day, this life. We are all so blessed in Love!

Any way we choose to believe and perceive our reality, it most often takes practice to reclaim what comes naturally to us as children of the divine … living a holy awe, blessed YES existence of reverence is a practice. I find gratitude is the strongest set point and let’s face it, too many days, the default “ain’t it awful” wants to steer the ship that would otherwise sail on bliss. We must actively engage with the divine waiting to embrace us in arms of beauty, compassion, positivity & infinite potentiality! Reach for appreciation! Reach for reverence! Reach for rainbows!Rest assured dear reader, I remain aware of the current turbulence in our country and in this world … in fact, the life and death and political swirl of energies around Senator John McCain helped inspire this look at honor and reverence. My own personal world is still stuffed with honoring my parents and their failing bodies … Yesterday and today in service to my mom with a trip to AZ for her specialty boots. As any regular reader here knows, I could fill up paragraphs with my family commitments. In a few weeks, I will move Jeremiah into his dorm room and I am still riding the waves of grief that surface with that triumphant transition. I mention it all now in context of the reverent rainbow reach to say that it truly is how you believe and perceive your co-creations~! As my son moves on, and I listen deeply ~ reverently ~ to my soul and the compassion fatigue I have for the elder care, there are indeed new rainbow creations I am called to and reaching for! Yippee for me and infinite possibilities!

AND! Let me reverently relish in reverie the 2 big co-creations that have come to BE this AHsome August! For it is all too common for me ~ us?! ~ to focus on the pressing To Do’s rather than to pause for the Ta Da’s as part of the endless not enoughness that loves to be in the driver seat! For inherent in embodying a reverent, holy, blissful yes for life is to celebrate our isness and certainly our accomplishments and co-creations as fully as we can! In this way we honor ourselves and the Great Spirit that flows through us, as us. It is not I but the Spirit within me that doeth the work!

Feathers Of Freedom Family Camp!

This year’s Circle Of Love was spontaneously created by 2 of our teens (pictured below). With 102 signing up and showing up, my little Camp took on a whole new expansion. The Great Spirit of Love that guided us all made for a very happy, high vibe in our sacred Sierra playground! Here are a few pictures of circles, Teddy Bear Picnic, the zebra stop on the (Inner) Treasure Hunt, and Forgiveness Footprints Path. You can see more photos on our page.

Camp gave me such a heart start for the path ahead! I sincerely hope it did the same for the beautiful souls who came to co-create our treasured time!

And! As I mentioned in the last post, the new CD did make it out and we sang some of it at Camp! In the reverent reality of all my To Dos, I will perfectly, imperfectly be ‘releasing’ it here and in the greater cyber space more fully and reverently in the coming weeks. These ABC affirmations are indeed a singing celebration that joyously lift vibration! And as the cover speaks to, I was born for this!So! In holy reverence, I thank you for spending this sacred moment with me. I heartily invite you to open up to seeing with eyes of reverence. As you practice this, you will certainly feel more bliss! May we all continue to reach for rainbows as we co-create a more reverent reality remembering who we truly be. Namaste, Love!

 

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Love Making Nurtures Oneness, Opening Peaceful Possibilities Quietly

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary.
What we need is to love without being tired. ~ Mother Teresa

Namaste Breath Of Love Expressed!

I greet you in the name of the greatest power, Love! It is Love that calls me here, Love that calls me forward, Love that unites us in this right now moment, and Love that can heal our hurting humanity.

I open with a song; a music video made for those families separated at our US border. I wrote the song while on ocean retreat sharing it with many international visitors at the hostel where I was. Written from the perspective of a child, it has been a prayer of solidarity I have been singing to help my own hurting heart and helpless hands in this horrific situation. The song, Mama Where Are You? is here:

I have not posted in this sacred cyber space for 3 months due to so many other commitments including the weekly, pictorial news I have been doing for the Youth Ed at Spiritual Life Center. My own family life continues to be exhausting, intense and demanding. The last May day I posted here, my auntie had a cerebral hemorrhage and left her body 3 days later. She was able to hear us at times letting her know we loved her and I sang to her multiple times including as she took her last breath. Song helped bring sacred awareness to her death. That reverent moment still opens my heart to peace. Both of my parents are in heart failure and too often gasping for breath as my one and only #1 son prepares to leave for college after being away adventuring most of the summer. Deep breath of yes allowance … Our transfomational tool of the day … breathe deep!

Through a deep, conscious breath we can come into oneness with ourselves, with another, our family, our world family. In the conscious yes breath, I align with the shine of my divine design doing what is mine to live Love, to make Love in this world. The life sustaining breath is an instant go to for nurturing oneness and practicing peace.

For any who know me or this place of sharing, you know there are millions of words for the last 12 weeks. So! In case you want to listen some, breathe with me, sing with me ~ pray and play with me, Owl, and Octopus, here is a (long!) Vlog:

As mentioned in the vlog, the Love making I do in this world that feeds me most is my work/play. Returning to my work feeds my soul and keeps me happier. We all need to feel on purpose by showing up for the truest callings of our hearts. For me, that’s music, the Leaping Literacy Library and our Creative Spirit Family events like our annual Feathers Of Freedom Family Camp. There are a few wonderful updates to report on all of the above!

The CD of short Spirit songs I began writing in 2016 is at the duplicators! Originally planned as ‘Children’s Chants’, it morphed and became an I Am exploration through the alphabet ~ Awake And Aware Through Zeal Zap! It is 37 songs (not all letters are created equal!) with a total run time of 54:22. I will continue to be in service to the songs by showing up here and elsewhere with links and samples and such!

The CD debuts next week at our annual Feathers Of Freedom Camp; some of the songs will be shared at some of our circles with my young master musicians, Jeremiah (18) and Cameron (17) who recorded, mixed and mastered the CD. Yippee!

Camp! I have been saying for years we will have 100+peeps and this is the year! Great gratitude for partnering with Spiritual Life Center; through their promotion and invitations, we have lots of new peeps of all ages joining us this year. And great gratitude for our wonderful crew who are also saying woo hoo! I am knee deep in feathers, tea cups and wings for Fairy Tea, Feature Creature Teachers for our (inner) Treasure Hunt and so much more! If you are called, we can still fit you in if you sign up this week!

And the Leaping Literacy Library! Yes the 2016 ABC’s For Humanity daily Play & Pray Calendar continues to be re-purposed and replaying for 2018. We are currently embracing Peaceful Quiet on our daily pages and the August Free Shelf: 

There are many aspects of the Library in what seems like a slow incubator. From the archives to the dreams and everywhere in between, here is a glimpse of some developing goodness with my supportive friend Rev Karene as Olive and me as puppet Owlet. 

I am celebrating this right now moment with a deep breath of gratitude for this space and especially for you sharing it with me at any mindful moment. Thank you. I know I have not been up for nurturing a regular connection here this year yet I am re-committing hopefully in service to others as well as myself. When our hearts keep calling, we can always begin again … in any blessed breath.

Whatever goodness you are up to, may you be blessed in it. May we all be oneness blessed in the Love that created us as we continue to make Love, live Love, do and be Love in our all too often troubled world. Thank you for the Love of you. Namaste, Love!

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!

 

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!