Co-Creation: Love’s Imagination

Namaste this Mindful Monday!

Happy February! Happy Love! Thanks to St. Valentine ~ with subsequent help from Cupid & Hallmark ~ February has become the month of hearts & romance, at least in America. Besides romantic love, our young children share valentine cards & treats in school and we often give cards of endearment to family members of all kinds though it is still the cupid arrow kind of Love that typically takes center stage. Stories of the original St. Valentine are conflicting; he may well have been a champion of romantic love but irrespective of who he was, and indeed, as questioned, how many he was (some say there were at least 2 St. Valentines), St Valentine brings Love to all fronts. As conscious co-creators, we can step aside from the chocolates & roses version of Love for a bigger, more expansive view of the greatest power there is, always working & available in our lives.

In celebration of Love, this will be a 2 part post featuring 2 of our early music videos. The titles of these songs explain the posts: Made Of Love & Always Love. For convenience, you can enJOY Made Of Love right here & now if you so choose:

So the basic reminder part 1 is that you and I and all things ever created are made of Love. A tree, a sunset, a flower … all so chock full of beauty, they can easily be seen as made of Love, yes? A baby or a puppy, new life … made with such Love, yes? Your baby turned (defiant) teenager, the face of Love, yes? The face in the mirror … Love … yes? There may be some disconnect between baby to teenager to aging (grand) parent but Love is Love is Love. For some reason seeing everything with the eyes of Love seems to take practice; active affirmation that of course Love is present. Sometimes it takes denials … when looking in the mirror, denying the inner critic who only wants to focus on flaws rather than perfection. Sometimes to stay in sacred awareness of the presence of perfection & beauty, we must employ our tools like imagination … see what you want to see. Or simply allowing the critic to be present too and saying, “I choose to love me now. I choose to see everything that is right with me now.” When we choose the high road with ourselves and others, we are affirming that yes, of course, we are made of Love.

When we consciously co-create, we are choosing moment by moment to align with the truth of who we be as well as with the reality we wish to co-create. Since often, we dream of something other than what is right before us, our imagination is a fabulous & necessary tool to make mindful meditations turn to marvelous  manifestations. This picture, thank you Michel Kotski, is a sparkling reminder of diamonds ~ the kind of diamonds that any girl (or boy!) can make their best friend, any day of the year!

Today’s Play & Pray Calendar entry invites you to take in something right around you that you love. Focus on something ~ anything ~ from your cat to your computer ~ touch it and say, “I love you.” When we bring awareness & gratitude into our interactions, we nurture reverence & love for all we have co-created as well as for all future co-creations. So hug and celebrate yourself as made of Love ~ as well as your children and significant others and all others as much as possible. If it is a challenge, use imagination & creativity as well as denial to help you. Love is always waiting; so just do whatever you need to to step towards those waiting arms of comfort & joy!

Our February website is celebrating Love Blessed with great contributions from our Dream Team including Jeremiah & I, so do stop by for some love filled celebrations! My little Dream video is still incubating … hoping to air some mindful moment SOONish!

Last week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation was to allow the flow of Love & Co-Creation in whatever ways it shows up. For this week, see if you can simplify your awareness of Love as co-creation in you & everything else there is! As beings of Love, aka God, truly any thing and all things are absolutely possible! Namaste Love!

Thanks Living!

Namaste Mindful Monday Meditator!
I greet you in the name of all that is beautiful ~ and it is ALL beautiful! We have sunny, crisp November weather with an array of dazzling colors delighting me from every window of the house. My body temple is officially another year older and I have spent this month in much better respect & cleaner relationship with my body… went the first few weeks sugar free and this last week sugar LIGHT which feels oh so right! My favorite kind of will power … to have just a few bites of cake … to taste the sweet in full appreciation and satisfaction ~ YUM! Last week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation was to be ‘Spirit aware’ that we live in a house of prayer. Did you try it on? I really spent the week in (birthday/life) celebration seeing beauty everywhere … when Spirit aware, I can’t help but see beauty everywhere! I also must report that this is the first birthday I can remember without a tear … not one … all week! Well, there were a few tears while watching Puss-N-Boots with Jeremiah in full theatre 3D on Saturday night … but those are good movie tears. This house of prayer birthday girl felt quite beautiful, satisfied, well cared for & indeed, spirit aware all week knowing there is nothing out of place or missing, just truly divine order in the making. What a relief to celebrate life, my life, with no regrets or admonishings, just unconditional Love & appreciation! I will say that all the goodness celebrating did somewhat thwart some planned work ~ like finally getting the New Thought Families Newsletter out on yesterday’s deadline … so, I must return there momentarily … but first ~ let’s pray!
(OOPS! Here I go again Mindful Monday Ones … pushing my limits again and WordPress time doesn’t move their clocks like we do so my Monday zone posting has now slipped into Tuesday territory once again! Arrg! And, divine order reigns ~!)

This week of Thanksgiving … I pray to stay Spirit Aware centered in Thanks Living … everywhere … with everyone … no matter what. And if I feel anything less than compassion, see anything less than beauty, feel anything less than unconditional Love, I pray to be Spirit Aware in the very moment and hand it/them/us over to God. In Thanks Living, I know that everything is a blessing. Everything is for my highest good. Everything is in Spirit care ~ I see & know it for I am Spirit aware!

Have a very blessed Thanksgiving full of festive feasts ~ family, food, fun & faith. We are so very thankful for YOU! Sunday, we begin Advent! We will be singing peace songs for the Sophia’s Well Of Wisdom Festival Of Peace here locally. Next Mindful Monday, we will be back with the first of our Awakening Advent Lessons.

This week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation is to stay ‘Spirit aware’ & fully embrace Thanks Living! Grab any challenges or obstructions that come up & place them into the hand of God! Play & Pray with us online with our Pray & Play Everyday Aware In Prayer Calendar! And here’s our music video, In The Hand Of God:

Oneness Opportunities!

Namaste Mindful Ones!

Greetings this Mindful Monday as August unravels & September steps up. At New Thought Families, we are stepping into our new month’s theme this week of Unity & Oneness. It is with great gratitude that I welcome you here as we finish this month’s focus on grace & gratitude.

On our walk to school the other morning, we had more than a fair share of heavy exhaust spewing trucks going past. On my way home, there was a particularly nasty one that lingered for a looooong time, sending my nose into my shirt & giving me the opportunity to ponder, allow, and transform. Sure, there was the usual, initial, judgemental reactions that went something like, “Geez, get that thing off the road!” “What an environmental disaster you are!” “Is that thing even legal?” Then I shifted to a more positive mindframe as I dove my nose into my shirt, “Wow! This shirt smells so nice & yummy! Guess I should be grateful to that stinky truck or my nose wouldn’t be here enjoying this smell!” And then, I relaxed and smiled at myself relishing the moment of transforming yucky to yummy. Then, the awareness deepened. Not only could I find reasons within myself to be grateful, I could embrace this further with compassion and recognition of oneness. For not only can we be grateful for the yuckies, we can choose to recognize our oneness with them. So first the compassion, “The guy’s just making his living with that big truck …. maybe he doesn’t have the money to fix it … maybe he’s providing a hugely valuable service to someone else … The trees are here in service to convert that foul air into clean … all really is in divine order!” And so it is, that if we truly believe in divine order as well as our connection to ALL, we, indeed embrace it all. I am taking this teaching to heart as I compassionately continue to piece my work life together …. my ongoing transformational opportunity! The great compassionate poet & Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thích Nhất Hạnh has  inspiring writings about all of life including oneness:
“Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh (The Miracle of Mindfulness)

So our mindful message for this week & the upcoming month of September is to embrace Oneness Opportunities. Our Mindful Meditation Invitation is to recognize your oneness with something ugly!~ Our Play & Pray Calendar is here  & it shifts this week from August’s Grateful Grace to September’s, United As One. If it’s one thing we can all be grateful for ~ always ~ it is the universal gift of the smile! Here’s our music video, Smiling Spree with the updated soundtrack from the new CD In Our Hands. EnJOY! Namaste, Love.
 “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

Graceful: Full of Grace

Namaste Mindful Friends!

Aahhh… a full week at home. Thank you God! Back to school & soccer & work? My familiar work of the last 6 years doing ChildSing Song Circles with local preschoolers has ended. State funding  is no longer available and I am free to try new ways and means. So what am I doing? Reaching back for what I did before Jeremiah … doing some tours performing school assemblies … or am I? I am in the dreaded booking phase and trying to feel the grace that is surely flowing. Before our summer voyage, I was praying about how to make a living and got a booking call from a school in western New York … a place Ive been graced to travel & perform lots … but mostly in the 90’s before Jeremiah was born. Now, I’m reminded how hard it is for me to book myself … especially when dinner depends on it … and yet, I am using my tools in a new found way. A mix of quantum selling and Spiritual Mind treatment to seek and affirm the perfect schools, students, and families to serve with my wonderful gifts of Laurie’s Stories. I am also embracing the treasure box of the internet & its infinite possibilities. Truthfully, I am full of hope and faith filled affirmation and at the same time, I am full of fear & doubt. Still, I gratefully affirm grace flowing which makes even the most awkward, doubtful me, graceful. Soooooooooo… Can I monetize my online work? Will I remain graceful no matter what? Stay fine tuned …

Meanwhile, Jeremiah is a 6th grader and back on the soccer field as goalie. We held hands today on part of the walk to school. So blessed in Love that my 6th grade boy will still hold my hand ~ at least today! I am ever reminded & present to the flow of Love & grace that just is. And in this remembrance, I am graceful.

A friend of ours died this week. She was a healer and helped many but in the end was filled with cancer & died after her stage 4 diagnosis approx. 3 months ago. We visited her in PA last month; sang, prayed, held sacred space. She was completely at peace. Yes, she was full of cancer but she was also full of grace at the same time. Such is the mystery of life. I had a dream about her recently, about 5 days before I heard of her passing … and I’m not sure which day she passed but in the dream, she was beaming radiantly. I asked her how she was and she just glowed saying, “I’ve ascended!” Sounds like a dream come true!  The other day Jeremiah pondered, “I wonder if Beth has been reborn yet or if she’s taking some time with God …” Beth was a 4th generation homeopath. A tribute to her is here: http://hpathy.com/homeopathic-biographies/beth-rotondo-2/

Upon hearing of  Beth’s passing, I called another friend who has been bravely battling cancer for a year or more. I pray for her daily but rarely speak to her. Her angelic warmth shone through the phone lines … so full of life & Love … and grace. Thank You God for how you flow Your grace in all situations … especially the challenging, yucky ones.

In sickness, health, life, death, birth, re-birth … God’s grace flows. Sure, we like it better when the right “stuff” shows up … jobs with stacks of money that celebrate our gifts, healing miracles that allow cancer to be gone and life to triumph. But grace, as synonymous with God & Love & divine energy flowing, is just that … always flowing. I know that. I affirm that. And it indeed washes over me as peace, sweet peace.

With more than a little of God’s grace … here it is … the new CD! It’s true, it really is In Our Hands! Hear samples of all 12 tracks on site!

In Our Hands CD

So our mindful message this month and  Our Mindful Monday Meditation Invitation is to be in the flow & grace of gratitude ~ to feel grace flowing whever we are! This week, see if you can find & feel grace flowing  … especially when it doesn’t feel graceful!

Pray & Play with us this month in our divine online Thanks Living Grateful Grace multi-media Calendar featuring Laurie & Jeremiah narration with David Tralle’s beautiful music. May you flow with the grace that surely is ever present! Namaste, Love. 

Going Grateful!

Namaste Mindful Friends!

I greet you with an exhausted & grateful wave from home … bags unpacked, first day of school walked & enJOYed, soccer practice, sorting stacks of mail, and much more … life is always so full no matter where we are! I was up nearly 24 hours straight on Saturday flying home and Jeremiah & I sat together on the planes laughing heartily at our comical crew.  This Mindful Monday finds me still somewhat dazed & confused by our trip and centered deeply in gratitude for all of it … especially HOME! I will try to put a few coherent thoughts afloat out here in cyberspace. ~Thank you for bearing with me ~ I share this with you ever so gratefully!

It was a long strange trip as they say … Jeremiah made me promise that “never again in my childhood, will we leave home for a month!” I heartily agreed! There were of course, many blessings and challenges during our month East. All the dynamics of (Jeremiah’s) family were ripe for practicing compassion, forgiveness and being grateful for the challenges. It is so much easier said than done to go grateful through the places that don’t feel good. Yet, if we are to be truly aligned with the divine order of life and flow of grace, it takes that willingness and awareness to gratefully embrace all of it. Being at the beach all last week was such a blessing and so easy to give gratitude for sun, sand, water but we did practice giving thanks for the yuckies too. Awareness makes for empowerment ~ at any age! I see it in my wise 11 year old and feel it in me. Thank you God!

I did fall in love last week … with one of God’s creations that boggles the mind and expands the soul! I fell in love … with horseshoe crabs.
These amazing creatures pre-date the dinosaurs by 1 million years …. they date them back on the planet to at least 350 million years. Their blood is copper based rather than iron based so is blue instead of red. Their blood has strong antibodies against toxins that are being studied. They have 3 eyes on top of their hard, turtle-like shell. In the first few years of their lives, they molt 17 times and when they molt, they go all out ~ literally! They grow a whole new self and abandon the old self completely … hard shell, crab legs underneath and long tail that steers them like a rutter … the whole thing is left as the new one emerges. After they’ve done this about 17 times in 2 years, they are mature and will stay in their body for life. With all these amazing facts, I find their lives a superb example of thrive and it brings out the God Love in me! Do horseshoe crabs go grateful? I choose to think they do … for life is a dance with the good & bad, dark & light … to survive & thrive for millions of years, a creation is at one with its Creator … cause for celebration, revelation and necessarily gratitude! So no matter what my new love the crabs think & feel … or not ~! I am so grateful for them and for our holy Creator of all!

Horseshoe Crab!

So our mindful message this month and  Our Mindful Meditation Invitation is to be in the flow & grace of gratitude ~ to ‘go grateful’ whever we are! This week, see if you can catch yourself going down the road of negativity ~ resentment, doubt or any of the other troublesome twists and turns we take ourselves through … then STOP! And renavigate to go the way of grateful … no matter what!

Pray & Play with us this month in our divine online Thanks Living Grateful Grace multi-media Calendar featuring Laurie & Jeremiah narration with David Tralle’s beautiful music. Below is our Ag. home spiritual practice video, Gratitude Journals. Though we are home now, we contiue to go grateful wherever we are! Namaste, Love. 

Missed Monday~Flowing Friday!

Namaste Mindful Ones!

This week came in the midst of being in Niagara Falls with a health issue, a rental car with a flat tire, the incredible healing power of water & rainbow and so many logistical concerns & challenges of a vacationing webmaster … I will not go into it ALL! I did want to check in because the week is not the same for me without this post ~ this is the 1st week missed since our inception of the blog in February. So here I am, if nothing else to make up my missed Monday in this Friday flow with a check in full of love & gratitude ~ and a few words on the flow of grace …!

As noted in previous weeks, Jeremiah & I are East for 1 month … with 8 more days to go, we both are SO ready to be home! Luckily, wherever we are, we are home with God, with Love and with each other. We are so blessed in Love & there is no spot where God is not! This trip is mostly about Jeremiah spending time with his dad & grandparents here and we leave tom (Sat) for a week more of that at the Jersey Shore, then flying home Sat the 13th ~ whew! So for the record, if I run into more connection problems this coming Monday, this blog may skip another beat until I’m home on Monday the 15th ~ the 1st day of (Jeremiah’s) school!

Soooooo……. being on vacation is much easier when you don’t try to work!! And some of the work I’ve/we’ve done this past week is glistening in goodness & grace that leaves me feeling sooooo grateful!! Our New Thought Families web theme this month is Gratitude & Grace and for any that visited this week, apologies for the delays! It can be challenging fitting in this volunteer web work under the best of circumstances but this month, I simply ran into insurmountable challenges … still the flow of grace will always bring us through … whoo hoo! My travelling studio had multiple connection & linking issues and coupled with a few health challenges of my own, it all led to complete surrender. In the place of surrender, grace always flows.

On Mindful Monday, Ag 1st, we were in Niagara Falls. I awoke with a very bloodshot, painful eye beckoning me to see the world differently! The day before, on Sunday, we were at Unity of Buffalo with lots of music and our talk, Trusting Transformation. It was a fun & faith filled time that we truly enJOYed. We met many wonderful folks there who shared their love & appreciation of our gifts. It was divine! And my ego had a ripe time afterwards telling me all I had done wrong … ick! Jeremiah didn’t agree; my beautiful supportive boy was a perfect navigator for the trip … running the GPS in the car and helping me stay aligned with the internal GPS ~ God Positioning System ~ I spoke of on Sunday. I also did a few library shows with Laurie’s Stories on the trip and did indeed feel well aligned with my own GPS~ Gifts, Purpose, Service.

My inner view is much more clear this flowing Friday as is my eye; our August website is updated … up & running with a few more tweaks being added tonight, Thank You God! One of the gifts of this delay was realizing how much I love doing the site! And flowing with what is … including the myriad of pictures I’ve spoken of phasing out … that job is one better done from the home office! Suffice it to say that sometimes we just need to surrender it all, even & especially the To Do List to be in the flow of what is. Being in that flow is grace.

Our blessed safe travels also gave us some memorable experiences of Love; spending time with a dear old friend, Marian Librarian & her daughter Julie who took me to an early morning yoga class in the park, going through Letchworth Park “mini Grand Canyon”, visiting Reptileland & the American Little League Museum which actually choked me up repeatedly! And Niagara Falls … we returned to the Cave of The Winds & the “Hurricane Deck” for the most amazing and awesome gift of inspiration & healing power! You go 176 feet down in an elevator … it was dug by hand and took 2 years~! Then,  you take this walkway at the base of the American & Bridal Veil falls where you can go up and experience the splashing, drenching intensity of the Bridal Veil Falls. This day there was an amazing full rainbow that arced the distance of the falls and seemed to follow us everywhere we went. I did take a few pictures but with my cell phone and I don’t know how to access them now~ Surrender that! Being there in that awe-inspiring power of color & water & energy was so healing & rejuvenating … I affirmed the Love that is me living as me. I was so aware of the God presence pulsating in me & all around me …. Jeremiah and I both were brimming with joy & Love … as he had expressed when we there before, it was impossible to contain all that joy & Love ~ because we’re not supposed to! In the circle of giving & receiving, Love & joy simply flow and it is our work & play to stay as open channels. I couldn’t remember feeling so physically well in a long time as I did walking away from those falls that mindful Monday, soaking wet, vibrating with that power that has continued to pulsate in me all week. Thank You God!

So our mindful message this month and  Our Mindful Meditation Invitation is to stay steeped in gratitude … no matter what~! And to allow the flow of grace in our beings & doings … whether we are engaged or surrendered, grace is available to us … God flows Love in divine order everywhere all the time … even and especially when (we feel) we are away from home and the road is bumpy!

Pray & Play with us this month in our divine online Thanks Living Grateful Grace multi-media Calendar featuring Laurie & Jeremiah narration with David Tralle’s beautiful music. Below is our music video, We Thank You ~ “May we never take for granted all the million little things that each & every sunrise promises to bring!” Thank you, thank you, thank you to you, the eyes, mind & heart here & now reading these words and experiencing the flow of grace that is us. Namaste, Love.