Being The Dream!

Namaste Divine Dreamers! I greet you this Thoughtful Thursday in a place of peaceful balance as I allow priorities to inform my actions and disallow the sense of overwhelm and not enoughness I know too well as informant. You could say I am employing Unity tools of affirmation and denial to bring me into harmony along with a whole host of other tools from my Transformational Toolbox!

So! I return where I left off here on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Monday, drawing from a talk I gave wherein we explored Unity principles, which again, I must say are universal principles! We looked at ourselves as divine dream of the One Presence (principle #1) and spent time being with ourselves as divinity:

In the infinity of divinity and beauty created on this planet; magnificent life forms as tall as mighty majestic mountains and as small as miniscule mushroom mitochondria supporting all of life, so are we created with this same magnificence. Look at your hand or any part of your beautiful body now and see the wondrous Love you are created of. Be with your body, any part of it or all of it and feel yourself as this Love you are created of here and now ~ experience your body with Love, appreciation and celebration! Let’s sing it!

I Am! The acknowledgment and affirmation that we are Spirit, The metaphysical meaning of I AM denotes our oneness with Source. Created in Love, we are this Love and goodness expressed as stated in Unity principle #2, I am good, we are good, made in the likeness of our Creator, each of us embodies divinity. Sometimes or perhaps often times, in the wake of distraction and forgetfulness, we don’t see our divinity and beauty. We may not even see it in the beauty that always surrounds us; in our loved ones, spouses, children, parents, pets; in our food sitting on dishes crafted for us and our nourishment, beauty smiling at us from the tree outside our window, or from clouds in the sky or the colors there that begin and end each day. Beauty and goodness is indeed all around us and inside us even if and when we forget to notice it. All too often, we take beauty, divinity, creativity for granted! We forget who we are and where we are; beautiful divine miracles able to co-create our reality, co-create our dreams and callings into reality on this multifaceted dreamscape of beauty and abundance where we live. Even those of us on a conscious path are only aware of so much. Generally we take (too) much for granted, we don’t think too much about the very essence of life that animates our bodies ~ the breath! Our breath keeps our bodies alive of course yet it is also one of our greatest transformational tools! We all know to take a deep breath to calm down and many of us have practiced different breathing patterns in yoga and other teachings. Let’s center now with our breath as we breathe in the goodness and beauty of who we truly be. With or without this song, breathe deep now into the essence of the beautiful dream you are created of.

an you see yourself in the mirror of your mind with only eyes of unconditional Love and appreciation? Deepen into that appreciation and awareness of the beauty of your body temple, your spirit home; keep breathing beauty down deep in your depths, breathe your truth, you are a blessed breath.While the busy distractions of the world may call us away, we can always take a mindful moment to breathe (our) beauty. No matter where we are and what’s going on, we can always take a beautiful breath, a deep breath of our beautiful depths.

Unity principle # 3 says that we co-create our reality with our thoughts. Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind. This includes all we feel and believe. This can be the place where our dreams give way to a different “reality”; the one that surrounds us rather than the one inside us. When we think about the life we dream of, do we know it as possible or do we make alterations based on what others or society may say is not easy at best and impossible at worst. We know that impossible is also ‘I’m possible’ with the Spirit I Am of our being if we so choose it. Still most folks I know including me have dreams that are subject to a long list of compromises. Many dreams become ‘rationalized away’, some dreams are completely forgotten. Can you recall a forgotten dream now?

From the song When Dreams Die Â©1994 Laurie Story V
Where do dreams go when they die?
Do they live in salty tears that dreamers cry?
Or do they float to a home where hope can make them fly?
When dreams die, where do they go? Does anybody know?
Since I wrote that so many years ago, I have come to know there are many, many places dreams can go including into the divine order of alchemy and sometimes better, bigger dreams. If we live long enough, there’s usually at least 1 pretty big, aha, ‘ glad I didn’t get that’job, person, house, whatever, that you once thought was so perfect! And there is also the aforementioned dreams that we never realize due to arguing for our limitations. Just as we can forget or divinity, we can diminish our powerful creativity to create our dreams and visions. We are created out of Love AS Love to express Love! Acting on our dreams is a way we express the Love we are made of. Consciously, unconsciously, with divine grace, we are indeed the cocreators of our lives including how and if we manifest our dreams. Unity principle #4 says that we use cocreation manifestation tools like affirmative prayer and meditation.

Through spiritual practices, we do stay anchored in source and centered in our truth of beauty and goodness. We can use affirmations and denials. I love using the word CHOOSE to help me align with these tools and keep the words, intentions and vibrations positive, especially when I am needing to transition from a negative or low place like feeling lonely or unsupported, “I choose to know that I am not alone. I choose to know I am surrounded by Spirit and that I am loved and supported. “ In these positive denials and appreciative affirmations, I usually shift my feeling and vibration quickly. Words are so powerful! Along with prayer, meditation, denial, and affirmation, there are so, so many transformational tools like the breath and visualization, all of which help raise our vibrations of Love and Peace and goodness. We know that raising our own vibration also raises the whole planet’s energy and can even help those who are suffering next door or around the world! The vibration conversation is, of course, an important one in our evolution! In the wake of this moment’s unification conversation, we take note of how embodying our divinity does indeed ripple out to the world. Which brings us to the 5th and final Unity principle:

With this, we return to the truth of our beautiful breath selves and living our dreams. We remember to be anchored in Source, to breathe our beauty, to dream, to use our transformational tools to align with the shine of our divine design, to be and live the truth of the dream we were birthed to be.

No matter where we are planted and who we are with, we can and will keep listening and trusting our own divinity and creativity, unified with Source and our divine essence. We choose to stay anchored in this omnipresent, ever present presence, breathing our beauty, living from this place, able to reset into our beautiful depths in any moment. We can, will, do, use our transformational tools to know our dreams and live them. Aligned with Source and highest good, we raise our vibrations and send this blessing out to raise the consciousness of humanity. Together, we dream and we rise, living the dream of the Love we are created of. And so it is!

PS
I am sharing the dream in Leaping Literacy Library with a spotlight on Panda this week! The gentle giant is a beautiful breath of beauty gracing the planet for the last 8 million years! Once a carnivore, now Panda only eats bamboo and reminds us to sit peacefully and chew on our blessings! Namaste, Love!

Let There Be Peace

Greetings of Peaceful New Beginnings! Happy 2024!
A year to dream more while we alchemically explore what has gone before!
Here is a New Year’s vlog speaking to the circle; a return to Music Camp, coming home, December blog absence, and alchemical song of life ringing on. Found here!

Yes, I continue to sift, sort, situate all aspects of life ~ peacefully! I will be doing a talk for Unity Spiritual Community on 1/14 entitled, “Living the Dream: A Co-Creation Unification Conversation. I will also share it, at least in part, here. In this right now, new day, new year moment, I pray for peace. For each heart, and the heart of humanity, I pray for peace. We are created and rooted in unconditional Love that knows and abides by peace. My prayer is that all beings will continue to evolve and embody more and more of this essence. Here is a singing prayer, a kind of a meditative chant, for Peace. I sang it last night as the clock and calendar turned. I continue to sing it as we embrace this new start. Within ourselves, each of us, and all of us nationally and globally. Peace, let there be peace … Found here!

As I keep releasing and breathing Peace, I am updating the Leaping Literacy Library structure including this blog, more on that soon as our new year unfolds. For now, I simply, again, wish you Peace. This is from the ‘peace tree’ decorated in my front yard. Peace, beloveds, Peace, from my heart to your heart, heart by heart we unite and ignite more and more peace on earth.

Shining Solstice: Yes In The Darkness!

Namaste Shining Expressions of Divine Design~

Happy Winter Solstice! On this shortest day of the year here ~ and longest for our friends on the other side of the globe ~ we look to this day’s auspicious alignment of planets bringing us the age of Aquarius and a brilliant ‘Christmas Star’ just in time for the holy days. It is indeed a deLIGHT to be here in celebration and appreciation.

When last in this sacred spot, we were celebrating and appreciating Hummingbird as Feature Creature Teacher and the (Advent) Light of Hope that so powerfully shines through any darkness. Our Hope resources including Om HomETV were added to this month with the other Advent virtues of Love, Peace, and Joy. While Hummingbird also speaks to Joy, Dove is THE bird of Love and Peace.

As seekers in this life, we are ever turning within and listening to the messages that call us higher into our fullest expressions of ourselves. Dove can teach us so much! A few fun facts; dove and pigeon are synonymous, they share parenting equally even down to both the male and female producing a kind of milk to feed their baby squabs. WOWSA! Both parents fast a few days before the eggs hatch to purify the milk they produce. We too can purify ourselves in various physical, emotional, and spiritual ways to allow a fuller embodiment of Spirit. We can live in balanced partnerships. We can disallow the human tendency to judge some as high and lofty and others as a dirty nuisance. Always about perspective, as we open to embody more Love, peace becomes a more common occurence.

Indeed, when we feel loving and well loved, we are naturally at peace!

In our Spiritual Literacy Offerings, we have various transformational tools for inspiration and action as found in our Leaping Literacy Library:

We have a new CD coming out next week, Circle Of One. It has a song for each Solstice and Equinox. Here is the Winter Solstice Song:

“The Light Of Love is who we are!”

In the markings of time and nature, there are always Spirit messages to be found and appreciated. Summer Solstice shines the bright light of purpose. In Winter Solstice, we sift through the darkness for our purpose. Like all of the green sprouts on this earth, we are ever reaching for the light. On the Fall and Spring Equinoxes, we are reminded to be in balance. In every noticing of light and dark, balance beckons. Doves/Pigeons also have strong messages of balance as they mate for life, almost always have 2 young at a time and share all the parenting duties. In looking at the lessons of 2, it is easy to see that balance is a strong foundation for sustainable Love and Peace.

As we are moving into the new era of humanity and the new calendar year, let us pray for balanced harmony; within ourselves, our families, communities, nation, world. We live on a glorious planet that needs us to heed more careful stewardship. We live at a time of divided values and priorities that beckon us all to compassionate truth. May all beings everywhere feel loved and peaceful even in the midst of humanity’s insanities. May we all fly with the dove in all things possible Love. Thank you for continuing to raise your vibration in life celebration! Namaste Messenger of Light filled, hopeful, joyful, loving Peace.

And so it is!

Released For Peace

Namaste Thoughtful Ones Breathing & Releasing For Peace!

Happy Clocktober as we embark on the 4th and final quarter of 2020. The way things appear, the last 25% of this unprecedented year could match up with the first 75%. Irrespective, we can still and always keep breathing deep, keep breathing peace.

The September swirl of circles for our Leaping Literacy Library ETV et al was on the one hand, my usual messiness and on another hand a clarity of blessedness and breakthru of yessness. Though it seems I am perpetually ‘behind’ for what I set, I am ever more increasingly at peace with it ~ and all else. Within reason and not without continued trips to the transformational toolbox, I am breathing and vibrating peace. Logistically, that shows up here in this right now moment as a linked sharing of our last 2 Om HomETVs which both came out late on their Sundays. The plan going forward for this last quarter is to post each Sunday’s show with a few words here on the actual Sunday they come out. The peaceful prayer remains to connect with those who would be served by these co-creations. Whatever you are co-creating, I wish you well in staying centered in peace and well being. Thank you and namaste, Love!

Transformational Tools For Peace!

Interfaith Inspirations!

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!

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!

 

Fovever Free In the Sea Of Divinity!

Namaste Divinely Designed Freedom Floaters!

Fleeting July Greetings! Thank you for being here for this month’s communication as it comes in these final days of jubilant July. As we began the month with our annual American celebration of independence and freedom, we will attend to that important awareness and theme here and now. As a gateway, here is a colorful recap of our SEAing the Divine co-creation celebrations this month at Spiritual Life Center! For indeed, creativity sets us free as an open doorway to spirituality!

 As reported last month, my sacred Sundays are now in spiritual community with the littles and middles at Spiritual Life Center. We are finishing up a 9 week inspiration exploration celebrating our divinity with the infinity of the sea! Our weekly Creature Teachers have helped us explore our own divine design and we have had some wonderful, colorful co-creations of art in our Sunday celebrations! Each Creature Teacher is truly an AHmazing testimony to divine design. This intersection of information & inspiration ~ science and spirituality ~ is working well for us. Shout out to my super son Jeremiah who, over the years has truly opened my mind and heart to the wonders of science! And! YouTube is quite the place with a plethora of possibilities we can integrate into our celebrations. Here is the YouTube video of sea turtles we had going pre and post program this last Sunday followed by a brief overview of this month’s Creature Teacher’s and the spiritual principles we explored with them. The finished integration of all of this information & inspiration is still forthcoming to the Leaping Literacy Library spiritual literacy section so stay fine tuned if you’re interested in any or all of it. Either which way, for now, enJOY this grace filled glimpse as we breathe free in the Sea of Divinity!
YouTube Video: Relax with Sea Turtles:

We started week 1 this month with Jellyfish:

                                           Freedom is truly found in The Flow!

Week 2: We explored all kinds of Breath and Play ~ including Bubbles ~ with Dolphin!

                 Creature Teacher Dolphin knows to Be Here Now and Breathe!

Week 3: We told whale tales including a metaphysical version of Jonah with WHALES!

             The biggest creatures on earth have a lot to teach about BIG LOVE!

Week 4: More stories and an array of crafts and play were explored with timeless Turtle!

                Turtle teaches us that we are always home and protected. And that yes, slow and steady makes for the pace of grace which is the surest way to win any race!

Week 5: This upcoming 5th Sunday has us embracing narwhals, the unicorn of the sea, as our Creature Teacher of divinity!

AHmazing Artic Sea Photo ‘borrowed’ from Kids National Geographic, thank you!               Our Narwhal Creature Teacher helps us SEA, we can Be Unique & Swim Free!

The final share I have from our creativity and spirituality this July at Spiritual Life Center is that the church put some kitchen kits together for local refugee families through the World Relief project. Youth and families were able to add our touch with hand painted cups (I baked at home!) The slip inside each of the 16 mugs reads, “Hand painted with Love by the kids at Spiritual Life Center.” Yay for us! May our touch of Love be truly felt by the receiving families …
So! Yes, good hearted times this month! I have also had plenty of family as always … a few trips to the mountains … dad’s 92nd, Jeremiah to band camp, visiting Silver Lake and visioning for our annual Feathers Of Freedom Family Camp coming right up August 18-20. REALLY looking forward to being in the sacred Sierras with the beautiful families and peeps of all ages in our creativity & spirituality playtime! It’s not too late for you! Be a Free Spirit with us for this wonderful weekend! In case you are called, we still have a cabin for you!

Our self guided Forgiveness Footprints Path is one of many optional opportunities at Feathers Of Freedom to playfully explore & free your heart!

DO join us if you possibly can! And if you can’t calendarize for this year, make it part of next summer’s sizzling plan!

Flowing Freedom!

So! Definitely yessing the blessings of these colorful, co-creation days! The more I say yes, the more I am blessed and therein lies the heart of freedom! Sometimes I say yes to keeping quiet until I am ready to speak; allowing Spirit to help me assimilate what is and what is mine to do in the midst of it. The pervasive political news remains in high drama mode with much of it still reeking of injustice. I cannot be on the frontlines of those standing up against bullying though I certainly, gratefully bless those that are. Every day it seems, there is yet another breaking story that if I let it, can break my heart. The recent speech of Trump to the Boy Scouts horrified me yet what is worse is the cheers and applause some of his bullying comments were met with. No matter what side of the red, white, and blue each of us resides on, my continued prayer is that we teach our children to be better than we and our ancestors have been in living the fairness and truth found in our nation’s founding principle of “Freedom and justice for all.” Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go. Yet, each of us wakes free to decide how we want to live and give the gift of liberty! For me, I am staying centered on my path of creativity and divinity. I have some really BIG news in my little corner of life as I am in the middle of taking a giant leap of faith! And! I am going to share it here next month 🙂 ~!! What I will share for now is the 3 guiding principles that have freed me up to face my fears and go forward with fortitude and faith! Perhaps they can help you too!
1. Divinely Aligned! Repeated visions and whisperings are from my holy, high self, angel team, divine guidance. If it keeps returning, it is mine to do!
2. Boundaries! In the wake of caring for aging and body failing elders, I choose to balance what I do for others and embrace this time of my life where I do have health and energy to co-create what I feel is mine to do.
3. Divine Disciple! I am choosing to use discipline and commitment as partners in freedom! As I master more of myself in the wake of inevitable doubts and fears, I am better able to stand fully in the power of my heart, taking right action for that that I am called to do.

As I employ this simple yet complex trilogy, I am free to be more fully me! I look forward to sharing the progress of the aforementioned leap of faith in a co-creation manifestation celebration next month! Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing with me this month, this mindful moment. Whatever the callings of your heart, may you be forever free to keep co-creating them joyfully! Namaste, Love!

Our Leaping Literacy Library has some jubilant July offerings on our Free Shelf incase you missed them ~ August will be here soon!

Powerful Positivity: Peaceful Practicalities

Namaste Powerful Possibilities of Positivity … Quiet Quests of Peaceful Practicalities!

You, and this quiet, patient blog space have SO been on my mind and heart for weeks now and this Transformational Tuesday is finally the time for now past P and quiet Q to be mindfully mattered. Even as our alphabetic calendar year rolls on, there are remnants of our om-ing Letter O still whispering to be remembered … Succinctly put, even as we organize and order the obituary of our lives ~ living the legacies we leave behind, the practicalities of our possibilities and peace infused priorities are the prana of our purpose. Let’s quietly breathe that in … Prana (life force) … possibilities … priorities … purpose.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” –Steve Jobs
This has been a summer of organizing & prioritizing for me … some of it in peaceful quiet, some of it in noisy movement. Spiritual single parenting my 16 year old son, 91 year old father and our Creative Spirit Families’ nonprofit the last year or 2 has been increasingly overwhelming so I have sought this summer to bring more organization, order, planning, and peace to all of our homes. What I realized as a pivotal piece in all the puzzles was my personality or prana … the way I do life. Credited to different people, the saying purports, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”
It is my propensity in all my prolific creativity to be over the top overwhelming to myself and others. SO many times growing up I was told, “You’re too much!” Purposefully, our greatest gifts can also be our most challenging weakness. I have long since seen the self sabotaging me that knows (the lie) that I am not enough. I can quantify and qualify that if you make your list long enough, you will indeed, never be enough! So! We have our Transformational Toolboxes of Treasure … Practice! Spiritual Practice is just that. Does practice make perfect? As perfect as we allow ourselves to be!I have been practicing peace. Peace begins with me. Loving, accepting, allowing me to be freely me. And! As I practice acceptance, I also plan, prepare, produce the changes I prioritize for more peaceful practicalities. Sometimes, this requires practicing patience.Patience has always been a challenge for me as I believe it is for many in our fast food society. Personally, parenting  my parent(s) has been huge for me in this. I have come to think of the ‘patient’ who requires care as one of the greatest opportunities to practice patience … as well as compassion and peace. The practicalities of practice call on many of our Ps ~ and a few Q’s! ~ Prayer is a most powerful piece of practice as we align our principles and perceptions to set the precedent of our priorities. In the stillness of quiet, our prayerful hearts can come to peace. Through prayer and contemplation, New Thought & Divine Science posit, “If we consistently “practice the presence” then we will see more and more positive results in our lives.” Oh, how the moments and choices of our pathways press on whether or not we stop to look at the (obituary) big picture of our lives.  My own prayerful path also requires passion and play along the way ~ sometimes preserving this priority provides some of my greatest challenges. Among my own other pressing priorities of the last few weeks, this past weekend was our annual Feathers Of Freedom Family Camp in the sacred Sierras! In the midst of all the free form loving play, we had  a few prayerful moments; seeds of positivity were planted and scattered all throughout the intergenerational, interfaith hearts in attendance. My own love of the playful presence of parents, grandparents, babies, littles, tweens, teens ~FAMILY! ~ was passionately reignited! Our playtime was heightened along with the freedom inspired invitations to open up to more free and easy for me personally … in how I do … everything! Even though I have been planning & preparing for Camp all year, I felt like a major procrastinator in the packing and final production phases. So, I just kept yessing the blessings, breathing into the stressings, counting on the Love & support of others even as I continue to be so challenged in asking (!) and implementing the true freedoms of forgiveness, acceptance, and trust in the divine order that truly is always perfectly unfolding! “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” –Chinese ProverbYes, in being present to the present moment, there is peace, sweet peace. Mixed with non-judgmental acceptance of what is and trust in what is unfolding, peaceful presence can be practiced even when it feels like stormy seas are swirling. My biggest freedoms in producing camp and all else this summer come from loving me no matter what. In preparing and planning, and then flowing with what actually shows up ~ free from the need for everything to go according to plan! And so the peaceful, prayerful path unfolds …I have come to know questions as a powerful part of affirmative prayer. In staying on a prayerful, peaceful path, alignment can come through open hearted questioning. My current question has become, “How can I do easy? Allow ease and grace to flow?” This has been bringing more and more vision as well as applied practical steps to let go, let God, be the ease and grace flowing through, abundant, prolific, co-creative me! Yippee! I do so choose to protect and pamper myself by painting positive pictures of all my ~ and our ~ human potential!

The only political point I will posit in this celebration and affirmation of the powerful letter P … is that the current polarizing, politicizing practices plead for peaceful prayers for the path of Humanity!
As I practice patience and peace, acceptance and forgiveness,  I Am that I Am better able to celebrate the organizing time I spent this summer as I return to the alphabetic production schedule of Leaping Literacy that seemingly got somewhat derailed. I affirm divine order perfection! And so it is that Q quietly comes to sit on the Leaping Literacy Library Free Shelf already double packed with powerful, positive P’s:Our New Thought Families daily Play & Pray Calendar is our consistent place for everyday spiritual centering and play ~ for all ages. Pop in anytime!

The Association For Global New Thought’s webinar  is in full swing on Monday evenings, 5:30-6:30 Pacific. Last night, Rev Dan Landis spoke on Holy Money ~ you can still catch his and others’ replays! Next Monday, we will experience Spirit guidance through shaman David Cumes, M.D. and on Monday, August 29th, I am honored to share Sacred ABC’s: Everyday Spiritual Family Literacy. Join me and the AHmazing others in these ground breaking, interactive webinars practicing and celebrating engaged spirituality!
And so it is this Transformational Awareness August Tuesday that I proclaim a peaceful, prayerful, playful positive path for you and me and all of Humanity! May you know your own divine perfection … no matter what! Namaste, Love!

 

Forgiving For ThanksLiving

Namaste Vibrant Voices of Leaf Dance!
In this beautiful fall moment, my heart is full of contemplation, celebration, and compassion. In the wake of another unthinkable attack on humanity, I have been holding heart space with our global brothers and sisters as well as many in my immediate family who are hurting. Ah, if only we were as deciduous leaves in our life and death cycle … glowing colors of change throughout the seasons ending in a rapid, victorious dance down to return to the earth! Fall leaves, I celebrate you!

There are so many ways to celebrate life and navigate death and to forgive the injuries sustained along the way. In this 3rd post giving attention to ThanksLiving, let’s sit with life’s tears a moment and the freeing gift of forgiveness. How can we not cry when we are hurt, when our loved ones suffer, when our global family is harmed and heart broken. Forgiveness is a powerful force of the heart and can sound like an empty word or concept sometimes. Let’s practice some right now, this peaceful moment. Think of something that hurts your heart; something you have or are suffering yourself or something that may be outside yourself like the attacks in Paris. Hold the hurt for a moment and let your mind/heart go where it wants to … blame? Anger? Deep sadness? Now let’s think of forgiveness … if it’s just a word, let it be so. Maybe you are already great at this … bring that energy here. Ask your heart to open up room for Love to hold the wound/wounded … Ask your heart to allow the power of forgiveness to bring peace to all those you blame or feel anger towards. Let the peace envelop your  heart in angel wings of light. Speak the words inside and/or aloud, “I forgive you.” And if necessary, “I forgive me.” Breathe into it and feel the peace and Light of Love fill you up. Do you feel lighter? Freer? If so or if not, know that it’s a start. Forgiveness like any spiritual practice comes naturally but usually after some time and choice to keep implementing it. Think of it as necessary heart, soul & joy maintenance!

The cleaning process of release and forgiveness can be important stepping stones to walking the path of ThanksLiving. Everything in this world needs some clean up now and again if not regularly like clockwork. I have written here before about some great tools like Colin Tipping’s Radical Forgiveness, Dr. Brad Nelson’s The Emotion Code, Alex Lloyd’s The Healing Codes, Access Consciousness to name a few. Prayer, intention, meditation, allowance and surrender are also right up there ~ linked within!

You see, I find for me, and I think this true of humanity, we cannot truly be in Thanks Living when we are harboring the heaviness of hurting hearts. We need the clean sweep to free ourselves up to live joyfully and gratefully. As I posted here in the September post, Balance Beckons, among the raging Butte Fire that devastated so many families’ homes, I believe that part of what is ours to do is to lift humanity up by gratefully living the blessings we are so richly blessed with. Yes hold heart space for the pain of others and absolutely do what we can to help but part of what we can do is to fully embrace the good we have joyfully in ongoing Thanks Living.

Our November PlayShop was yesterday and we did just that; we held the doors open for grateful celebration! We made appreciation chains and gratitude rocks as well as stone soup to eat and a creativity stone soup bowl:I love our PlayShops and the beautiful families who come. One of our moms had been in a serious car wreck and she was back with her whole family ~ thank you God! Her young daughter sat with her eyes closed and a beautiful smile in a heart filled space while I sang “Grateful For You” ~ it really filled my heart! We drummed our thanks, and sang We Thank You and Soup Of The Soul. We heart shared gratitude and blessings and colorful art creations. Here are a few invitations I gave the families, and now you too, for the old paper chains as holiday decorations ~ and family affirmations! 1. Take colorful paper strips of paper and decorate them with affirmations of Joy, Love, Peace or anything you are living and/or want more of.
2. Write wonderful words about your family members … Create the chain between now and Thanksgiving and then read them together. You can make it like a riddle and have everyone guess who each one is about!
3. You can simply write things you are grateful for and build your chain up over time. Jeremiah and I did this for a few seasons and a Home Spiritual practice video from our New Thought Families archives is on the Leaping Literacy Free Shelf this week. Also on the Shelf is a Gratitude Walk I took a few years back on my birthday and the Laurie StorEBook Snake In My Birthday Cake in further birthday celebration ~ yes, happy birthday to ME! Whee! I’m turning (gulp) 53! Our SoulPlay featured fun one this week is Harriet Tubman Wright of  The Wright Resort who was our Spirit Sanctuaries Counselor for the SoulPlay Camp. 3 of Harriet’s videos are on the Free Shelf with her building altars and play, play, PLAYing with us! Yes, mixing 2 of my most favorite things ~ sacredness and silliness ~ thank you Harriet! Altars are a powerful way to super charge the energy of your home or any space to bring in … beauty, gratitude, mindfulness, peace … forgiveness! Anything goes!

One of my window sill altars with our beloved dogwood outside smiling fall brilliance!

So yes, this week is full of Thanks Living celebrations … tomorrow/today! (long post process!) is my birthday and I will be pretending to be 3 instead of 53, with no responsibilities, just painting, singing, a teddy bear picnic! On Wednesday, Jeremiah and some of his drama classmates are performing a preview for some of my family of the student written one act play entitled “14 Main” … remember the old store and home of my ancestors I’ve been cleaning out? It’s going onstage! I’m hoping my 90 year old father can be forgiving of the teenage poetic license! Jeremiah has also made his way into the community theatre production of “It’s A Wonderful Life” which opens Friday .. with lots of meetings, appointments … and a teddy bear picnic in between … indeed another full week of Thanks Living!

Whatever your week has in store, may you be filled with deep peace ~ through forgiveness if need be ~ and may you be fully free to enJOY a week of Thanks Living. Thank you for the gift of your presence here and in the world. Namaste, Love!

Balance Beckons

Namaste bright, blooming beacons of beauty!

The last 10 days since I was here in blogland have been an amazing mix of beauty & horror, sorrow and joy. Our mindful meditation moment here and now centers on the oneness of all of it and how balance, sweet balance is the beckoning in how and what we make of this life experience. Truly, we choose our perspective and that is a powerful precipice in which to perch.

The big news at the heart of all that has transpired here is The Butte Fire which had just started at my last post. On 9/11, it became hugely apparent what a big wildfire this was with so many of our neighbors evacuated from their homes, power outages, displaced animals and scores of helping angels stepping up and in to help. I was *so* reminded of *the* 9/11 when I was on the last plane out of Sacramento, CA at 6:00 a.m. with 18 month old Jeremiah on my lap. The intensity of that experience came back to me on *this* 9/11 more in the wake of the way people around me were awakened … awakened to the kinship of who we are. Everyone in the grocery store was talking to each other … really talking … to know how we all were doing and what we needed. I hugged quite a few little known neighbors to convey my support. As the days have progressed, we now know that 545+ homes were lost though most if not all were in our neighboring Calaveras County. Some of these folks work here and are known to us though all of them need the help of a neighbor. When Creative Spirit Families was approached to help, of course I said yes, you can join that effort here.
There are so many ways we can support each other. In times of crisis, the goodness of our humanity rises and it is a beautiful thing. I was also shocked to hear of looters found going in evacuated homes so as a balance point, we must realize that the depths of despair can also arise in these times. Certainly the fear and suffering was palpable … not only from humans but all of the life lost in the 71,000+ acres burned. And there are other neighbors only a few hours away in CA suffering the same devastation in the Valley Fire. So, most of us are called to restoration … how can we help?! Certainly donated goods & money + displays and demonstrations of gratitude for the firefighters that came from far and near …
Yet I offer that an important balance point is also for us who have not lost to continue living and vibrating our joy. Our September monthly PlayShop strove for that very contribution. Originally scheduled at a nearby lake that was in the thick of where the fire started, it looked like it was going to be cancelled like all else that weekend when even gathering in the local park was out due to smoke. I took it to Spirit in my morning meditation and followed the guidance to ask our neighbors for use of the Methodist church. He immediately reached in his pocket and handed me the key. Instead of making mobiles and wind chimes, we made gratitude signs to join the others popping up around here.

And! We celebrated Equinox ~ equal night, the time of balance is coming this week 9/23 ~ and balance in our lives. Our yogi Keith drove a few hours to be with us! We did a bit of yoga …
And! Our small group of 17 went on an inner treasure hunt of listening and guidance with fun surprises tucked around that blessed social hall. One of our families was evacuated and it was a time of community, creativity, play and fun for them and all of us. We all found the vibration of joy to uplift our Spirits if even for that little while. Yes, collectively and creatively, we changed our perspective and hopefully helped lift the Spirits of others in our hurting communities. So, yes as kindred Spirits in the oneness of creation, of course we feel each other’s pain; compassion in action is the natural reaction! It is indeed a silver lining that tragedy reawakens this within our often sleepy consciousness. One of the gifts for me was a small sense of what the Syrian and other refugees were fleeing when the planes and helicopters were loudly flying overhead constantly for 1 or 2 days in particular. These planes over my head were helping angels. Yet I felt the fear that went with their presence and coupled with the news of homes being destroyed by fire, it helped me know, just a miniscule fragment of what it must be like to live in a war zone, to have ‘home’ destroyed and to need to leave to seek a better life. The refugee crisis is just one of many in our world today and this fire in our backyard helped me feel a deeper kinship with them. Because, truly we are all One. And! An important compassion in action step for me is to step out of my empathic place of sorrow with and for the pain of others and live the joy that I am blessed with. Yes, be aware and send prayer. Yes, take whatever giving steps I can to help. And yes, live the joy I am blessed with. Here I am from this last weekend showing some of my photography and art with other wonderful local artists in a county wide ‘Open Studios’. It was a gift to the county I think in it’s time of healing. It was a joy to be with other artists and an overall good celebration of this part of my soul expressed. It was also a personal remembrance to me of the preciousness of my time and energy and my personal need for balance.

It is all too true that for everything we say yes to, we are saying no to a myriad of other things! In the midst of being in my art love last week, I spent some hours at the hospital with dad and the school with Jeremiah … our lives are always unfolding in our moments made of choices and perspectives!

Yay for art and photos on display!

A new piece speaks of family and divine order all lined up!

And the transformations of life go on … September’s daily Play & Pray Calendar at New Thought Families is all about transformation celebrations. Remember with us here!

Jeremiah and I are giving a concert this Saturday at the El Cerrito Free Folk Festival and gearing up to present an In Our Hands Performance PlayShop, Compassion In Action, at the Parliament of World Religions next month in Salt Lake City ~ you can still go to this amazing event!

Meanwhile, the Leaping Literacy Online Library is still in beta testing … wanna help?! We want YOU! Any helping angels reading this who are called to peruse the Library NOW, give us useful feedback over the coming weeks and enJOY a full year’s free Library Membership, submit the form on our Beta Tester page! We gratefully invite you in for this win-win as we begin again!
Our weekly Free Shelf where we feature fun freebies from each section of our Leaping Literacy Online Membership Library is featuring a book from each section this week! SoulPlay Playmate Marsha Therese Danzig reads her book, The Tiniest Acorn along with 3 Laurie StorEBooks ~ enJOY!

Thanks so much for being here for this sharing … your presence is such a gift! May whatever else you are saying yes to this day, this time, be a blessing to you and others as we ripple our experiences into the oneness of our humanness with the balance that is always beckoning. Namaste, Love!