Safe Storage

There is a squirrel that has been very busy this past week in our small back yard (a tiny square, actually with a nice tree in it, and then backs up to a golf course chain link fence). This squirrel is doing it all, pacing furiously, working, searching, interrupts the mission at any given moment for a time-out of hilarious miss-matched play and gyrations….then back to gathering and running about with a seeminly intent mission upon it’s mind.

Occasionally he comes up on our small patio block and I think he is going to actually knock on our door. I think he wants to ask us if we do not know winter is coming for what he sees of us is two loafers in easy chairs. Then back he goes to his own business, probably with the thought, “To each their own!” 

So today, I share some thoughts I think a squirrel might have about this time of year. I wrote these thoughts years ago in a poem titled, “Safe Storage”. It is in my collection of poems still being added to “Divine Being”. 

                                      Safe Storage 
                                                       Susan H. Hajec

                                 Prepare!Beware.
                                 Don’t go without.
                                 Winter’s coming
                                 There’s no doubt.
                                 Scurry here, hurry there
                                 I’m much too busy to compare
                                 The pile in my winter store
                                 To what I think I’ve used before.
                                 I guess it’s maybe–
                                 Just one more!

   

 

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Sharing the Goodness of Reiki

I am a Certified Reiki Master. I love being that in this world. The integrity and responsibilities that come with it are great reminders of how I want to live, what I aspire to be in my essential being. And it is a wondrous evidence and demonstration of my core belief, even though I cannot thoroughly understand it. I take it on faith:

                   There is only One! Only one Life. And that life comes FROM Source and IS Source. In that Source, there is No lack, no – ill being, no sickness, no poverty, no injustice, no sorrow, no violence. And yet I live in the land and the world where seemingly all of those things exist. I have chosen to recognize my Oneness with this One Source and to live it and become more like it and share it with others who also want to join in the mystery.

Reiki is an Energy Healing, a holistic health practice, although it is also “not exactly” lined up with those modalities –  because the founding of Reiki came from a Japanese man, Mikao Usui, who set out to find out just exactly how a great spiritual leader, like Jesus, healed others. During his quest to learn this, he was given a spiritual experience, like Bill Wilson was from the 12 Step AA Programs, and then went on to establish global programs of healing.

They are both Spiritual Programs that heal on all levels: spiritual, emotional and physical. Bill Wilson simply wanted to be able to stop drinking and by sharing what he knew with other alcoholics, he was able to do this and established the 12 steps.

Usui simply wanted to know how to heal. Through his spiritual experience, the gift of healing made a home within him, and through the Level 1, Level 2 and Master attunments, he shared this gift and awakened in others the same ability to continue affecting the world for good.

I have joined Cindy’s Global World Healing Reiki network and in my Reiki prayer for self and others today, I found an energy of insistance that I share this great gift. Since we moved to our smaller townhome, there is not room for my Reiki table nor the Reiki Room I had in our last residence. I feel called now to find a place in the public to accept my Reiki bed in an available room, where I can give ongoing education about Reiki and give treatments and attunements. I seem to be thinking a lot about caregivers these days and I am wondering if I should focus my search there.

In the meantime, I share Cindy’s work with you as it has a wondrous spirit of love that our world needs so much. Just like you and I do.

Hi!  My name is Cindy Oriente, and I’ve been a Certified Reiki Master/Teacher and spiritual counselor for seventeen years.  Reiki has truly changed my life, helping me to become more focused and balanced, more compassionate and loving towards myself and others.  It has accelerated healing on all levels of my body, mind and spirit, and through my healing sessions and the Reiki classes I help others remember they can do the same.  Each of you has this wonderful gift of healing within you!  If you have questions about Reiki, please email me.

Visit the World Healing Network
Each Sunday, people all over the world
are sending love, prayer and healing energy
to people who are seriously ill–we’d
love for you to join us!

 

 

What is Reiki? Reiki is a simple, natural and safe process for self-healing on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels.   Anyone can learn to tap into this higher energy of unlimited, Divine Intelligence and unleash their inherent ability to facilitate Reiki energy.Who Can Reiki Help? Reiki appeals to all people, crossing over the illusory boundaries of race, religion and nationality because it recognizes the oneness of all living beings and our interconnection through our One Source—the One Heart.What is a Reiki Session Like? Reiki facilitators channel higher-dimensional, spiritually-guided Life Force Energy. This is the unconditionally loving energy that has given birth to us all and that unites us all.    Reiki offers the receiver an invitation to heal.   As the energy of the Reiki facilitator heightens during the healing session and they place their hands just over the receiver’s body or lightly touching it, the receiver perceives the energy on a deep soul level and very naturally matches it through a process of harmonic resonance. This can feel like a soothing warmth in the body or a slight tingling, or a combination of the two as energy moves throughout the body, although it is not necessary to actually feel the energy for it to be effective.  Nurturing the Self We all know the Earth journey can be challenging, so it’s important to remember to nurture and honor ourselves every step of the way.   Patience is the key–we can learn to accept and be in compassionate understanding of every aspect of ourselves, especially the parts we don’t prefer.  All dis-ease, whether it be physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, or any combination thereof are the very parts of ourselves that are calling out for love and transformation.   All energy seeks resolution and balance.  We can love ourselves into spiritual awakening and physical wellness in the same way that the Creator loved us into being.  Reiki is Love.

  LIVING YOUR LIGHT…
BE-ING REIKI

 

“The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no tickertape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our encouragement, who will need our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt.” — Leo Buscaglia   We are all made of energy. We are energy beings, each vibrating at different frequencies. And the truth is that the loving energy of a Reiki practitioner has the ability to affect others in a positive way everywhere they go, whether or not they are facilitating an actual “healing session.”  When your auric field comes in contact with another individual, who you are and what you stand for is communicated on an energy level, whether or not the other person perceives it consciously, and even if no words are spoken.  You are playing your “Reiki Radio” for them as you move through your daily lives, playing a song of love, and by doing so you are inviting them to play along with you 🙂  So just by being you, wherever you are, you are assisting in the evolution of mankind and the healing of the planet!  “…the Heart Math Institute in Northern California has found that there’s a field around the human heart that’s shaped like a doughnut– its called a Tube Torus–it’s between 5 and 8 feet in diameter.  So when you’re within 5 – 8 feet of another person, you’re in their heart field and you two are communicating on levels you may not even be aware of.”  –Gregg Braden, in a interview at the Prophet’s Conference  New York City , May 2001 Moment-to-moment there are opportunities to touch the lives of others.  As often as possible you can choose to: Think loving thoughts Express yourself through loving words and BE love in action. BE Reiki! You can teach others about Reiki and offer them a vision of healing by simply being love in your everyday life. Smile at people! Do and say thoughtful, unexpected things. Surprise people with loving kindness!  You’ll feel great!  Service to others is the greatest way to serve the self, because all are lifted by it, and this creates a never-ending chain of love that will transform the world we live in.  Guaranteed! Be a beacon of light, and shine it everywhere!

 Discover lots of love and light through Cindy at:

 http://www.worldhealing.net/reiki.html

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Letter to God

I don’t know if this is a true story or not; it came over on my email and when I tried to copy the photo, it would not copy. Then I looked on the Internet and it was the exact photo as on the email in the photo album search. It is a worthy story though.

We don’t know who replied, but there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of theUSpostal service.

Our 14-year-old dog Abbey died last month. The day after she passed away my 4-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so, and she dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.

I hope you will play with her. She likes to swim and play with balls. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, ‘To Meredith’ in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, ‘When a Pet Dies.’ Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help and I recognized her right away.

Abbey isn’t sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don’t need our bodies in heaven, I don’t have any pockets to keep your picture in so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I’m easy to find. I am wherever there is love.

Love,

God

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Pilgrimage – Life as Prayer

Pilgrimage – Life as Prayer

  “If you give your life as a prayer you intensify the prayer beyond all measure.”
                                         Peace Pilgrim 1908 – 1981

On her pilgrimage from 1953 – 1981 

Her little Pocket size blue book, Steps Toward Inner Peace, has been translated into twenty languages and published in a few many countries. It is a compilation of who she was and how she came to be a pilgrim for peace, a messenger of God’s total and uncompromising love for us and a true living example of how God cares for us.

She had total trust in that as she took up her walking pilgrim way of life, renouncing all worldly goods, traveling on foot wearing only her pilgrim tunic, and sharing with those who cared to listen (and thousands were drawn to her) the true path of peace in the world through inner peace and coming to a correct understanding of the existence of a loving God in every particle of creation. She trusted this God for total provision, eating only when offered food on her journey and sleeping out in the elements unless invited inside by another kind human being.

This unquestioning trust is not possible for a human being unless one has learned a lot about the reality of their being and their connection to all that is holy. She describes making herself ready for her life journey and purpose by what she calls: The four preparations, then the four purifications, followed by the four relinquishments.

I know you can’t just put this stuff on a TO DO list, and check them off, one by one. This is a process of inner journey before the first step of the outer journey of walking begins. I believe we are all called to do this in one form or another.

Maybe not to live our life as Peace Pilgrim did, but I’d venture to guess most of us who are willing to take on this inner voyage mostly do so for the same motivation she had: to find inner peace, a peace that was satisfying, stabilizing, and love-giving. In fact, Peace Pilgrim came to be known, in her crusade for world peace, to say the key to world peace was true inner peace in the individual.

I have believed that for a long time in my life and I still have preparations, purifications, and relinquishments I regularly work on. Maybe that’s why I’m not a pilgrim on the road as she was. But I am a peace light-worker in my life, my family and my work. I also know that whether one works for peace on an individual “little-life” stage or through the power of a larger world-wide attention, that individual must first possess inner peace.  

Peace Pilgrim’s individual discernment, discipline, and open loving heart led her to share freely that which she learned and that which she was given by a Higher Power. She did not force her message of what she knew to be true about God or the way to live upon anyone. She merely walked her path and accepted invitations where she received them. She had no marketing plan. She only had a path to walk.

A pilgrimage is a gentle journey of prayer and example. She wrote, “My walking is first of all a prayer for peace. If you give your life as a prayer you intensify the prayer beyond all measure.”

  

Sometimes the Truth of someone is so completely spelled out by what they say and how they live that to paraphrase it would do somewhat of an injustice of it. So it is with printed materials about Peace Pilgrim and her message to the world. Since these materials are not copyrighted and readers are made welcome to reprint sections in whole or part, that is what I choose to do in some future notes on napkins about Peace Pilgrim.

Materials on the life and work of Peace Pilgrim are kept alive by a group of volunteers who freely publish and distribute them all over the world. Unpaid volunteer workers and many small donations make this possible.

http://www.peacepilgrim.com/

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New Old Friends!

In the Groove

“Oh what fun it is to ride“………….wait a minute. I have to save that for Christmas. What I want to do today is talk about our Resurrection High School, Class of ’61 Reunion.

The Reunion Muse was talkin’ away to me all the way back to Kalamazoo. But since I was the driver, I just got a small bit of it down on a napkin (when we were filling up with gas). I was “road challenged” this weekend trip, so I could not afford to write on napkins while driving. It’s probably a higher fine than texting too. And I’d hate for the State of Michigan to have to write a new law.

We all have a life. We are all living our life. But every once in awhile, you can stop and have a get-together with a group of people you once had “another” life with during “another” time of your life. That is what a 50 year reunion is like. Not just a time-warp, but almost time stretching out on a rubber band from the years of the ’50s and ’60s until now.

There is spontaneous laughter, gentle reminicing, information downloads from the time then to the time now. There’s talk about what we were, what we weren’t, what we have left to do that we want to do, memories of those who aren’t here to celebrate with us.

And celebration and genuine happiness to be with one another for anything from a passing word and hug to an occasional in-depth conversation of passions and pursuits that still interest us made our in-the-moment weekend party a great vitality.

I was not the usual shutterbug I often am capturing a picture story, but I did see plenty of flash cameras going off so I know many have carried home with them a “Kodak moment” of the Reunion. When I did take photos, I think my equipment is a bit on the frizz because most are either fuzzy or the flash didn’t go off.

Friday night, after an interesting back-up detour to Lansing, Tom and I arrived at Tripper’s, the local bar shrine to MSU, where the gathering was in full steam ahead mode. A packed room, with chatter, drinks and food being served, I could speak with a few, maneuver into spots to get near my old friends, and ask names of some I didn’t recognize.

I was warmly greeted by Mike Fitzgerald, Margie Blasen, and several others who knew me also as Napkinwriter, which felt really good to me. When I was a little girl, and my grandparents, great aunts and generally the “older generation” spoke of their schoolgirl women they knew by their married names, I was always agitated when they referred to them by their maiden names. But I am going to shamelessly refer to my girlfriends by their maiden names because a reunion kind of evokes that in you.

Agnes Spitzley and Judy Hartsuff, two regular attendees of the monthly luncheon group, that we hadn’t been to for awhile due to Tom’s surgery, greeted us to catch up on his recovery and Tom held his own as we played through the weekend, including the travel.

Several guys checked with me too and it was special to us that so many followed the recovery, showing care and concern. They were happy to see him doing as well as he is and so am I.

I got to the back of the room, where the husbands of two of my high school BFFs were standing, Dick Jackson and Len Ignatowski. Catching up a little about life on the lake with Dick, and Len’s travels to Vietnam.

Barb Czubak, Dick’s wife, and Diane DeRose, Len’s wife were my first two friends I met at RHS, when I went into that class as the “new kid on the block”, having moved to Lansing from Sycamore, Illinois in the summer of 1957. It turned out they didn’t live far from my LaSalle Blvd. home and we went through the rest of our high school and college days as best buds. An example I’ve been known to have held high as an example to my own daughters on occasion when bringing up the value of friendship. Another special friend in this group was Marsha Pricco, who I didn’t see until Saturday night at the dinner dance.

Kathy Gaybrick was in the room and we only got a brief time together, would have liked more. She and Mary Ellen Tomlanovich were my first summer Michigan friends before going into the 9th grade at RHS in September. I caught up with Mary Ellen and husband Garth Barrett (our senior class president) briefly at our Saturday night too.

I won’t be able to mention everyone, and there is this vague, but certain knowing that there were classmates there I didn’t even get to meet and speak to. There is a general group who held a steady course and made sure this reunion happened, and I probably can’t even name all of those.

There is Gil Glick, who is our general Father Duck of the class, sentimentally and tearfully joyous anytime we are together as a group, and so encouraging to gather once again. And some of the others who put this on the calendar for us and willingly worked over the year were: John Lynch, Diane DeRose, Judy Magee (I think she’s Mama Duck), Mike Ridge (who always has a joke ready), Judy Hartsuff, Rosie Pung, and probably others I’m not thinking of and don’t know about, but I can tell everyone, WE ARE ALL GRATEFUL to you for the opportunity to come together and treasure what we had and have.

Some of us know by now that somehow, “it” all fits together. What we experience in life is our human being….”being human”. There’s a wide disparency amoung people about WHAT their high school years were all about….”either the best years of our lives”, or the”I can’t wait to get out” years of our lives. 

But as we live our life some more, we find out it is not about where you are, it is about who you are. And we were all having a great time this weekend being who we are. Is it possible we were teenagers who thought we had the answers then and actually later on began to ask the right questions?

I heard a lot of personal expressions of personal gratitude for living the life they lived, all ingredients poured in and counted. I heard a knowledge of the internal benefits of forgiveness. I saw WomanSpirit on the dance floor and joined in the dance. And I saw the evidence of joy in just being who you are. I’d say that’s a pretty good education!

Ok, so we lived in Kentucky for twelve years, and I know they don’t know the words to My Old Kentucky Home, except for “weep, no more my lady”….so in my mind it is perfectly right that we have the printed words to our Senior Class Song, so we could all sing along properly.

Well, properly we did, but loud enough, we did not! Diane DeRose had us sing it again, this time to raise the roof at the Saturday Night Dinner and Dance.

Mike and Betty pick up the volume for a second time around. I gave Mike a geography lesson and an invite to a Kalamazoo reunion, since I-94 runs right through here on the way to Lansing from Illinois. He and Tom can play golf and Betty and I can go to a movie! Happy 46th anniversary today to Mike and Betty. I had a way-too-short time with dear friend Marsha Pricco, basketball partner and good all-around-long-lasting friend, and her husband, Duane, “Duke”. But I did see he had his cool shoes on.

At our dinner table, I had the most beautiful picture painted for me. Carol Vincent did it for me when she described her day and her two-way travel across a bridge — in the morning, going east, she crossed the bridge going to work and saw a sunrise each morning. On her return home, westbound, she saw the sun setting each day. I hope that doesn’t mean twelve hour days but she described a long, satisfying career in making sure software programs worked before they got in computers. I wondered where she was when I needed her.

I enjoyed our dinner table time with Leon Wendell, who has had a lengthy career in health care and heart and lung speciality work with the famous Dr. DeBakey when both open heart surgery and transplant science was on the horizon of new procedures.

I was so happy to sit with Ellen Dawson, who I remember as the music person in high school, leading the band, still working professionally, though not in music. Pat Halpin, a true treasure to me, was one who made me, the serious student” laugh and she still can. We have lots of unfinished conversation to go.

I think Judy Magee did relax and have some fun after pulling many of the strings, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, after she got that last name tag made. She sat next to me and we enjoyed the food and conversations around the table. We also got one hot dance together when the music bumped it up and we were near the dance floor — so why not?

Diane DeRose Ignatowski, not only had a major part in forming this reunion, she had a fitting and touching recognition ceremony, “No Vet Left Behind”, for the veterans in our class. She had each class member who had served our country in any branch of the US Armed Forces or Reserves come forward to accept a pin for recognition. And we welcomed them home, just in case we forgot to do it when they returned. Thanks, guys and gals!

It was good to hear them all tell of their service to our country, the protections of freedom we all enjoy. A memorable moment was when Goulding recalled some of his memories from the First World War and a brief stint in the War of 1812.

Carol described her Naval career. I wish we could have had a few bars of music from each of the Armed Forces Branches. I know we would have sang along. As it was, though, I think Mike Ives topped the show with his enthusiastic retort about his Marine service, “I loved every minute of it!”

Judy Hartsuff and Mike Ridge had something up their sleeves for the night too. Which was extremely hard for Mike because he had short sleeves. Details are a bit fuzzy, like this picture, but they managed to surprise John Lynch with an official certification of membership in our RHS class of 1961 and we are certainly grateful for that!  John’s been the glue behind this group, that once it got rolling downhill picked up more speed and more “group-ness” for the past couple of years. John, we all love you!

Then we all turned into the old time Rock ‘n Rollers that we know we are. Judy Muenchen and her husband danced the night away! Denise Downing, Joyce Pierce, Pat, great-grandmother rocked the circle. Diane Fillion and Dom skirted the dance floor to an oldie but goodie love song. Cathy Behl celebrated with us all.

Nine o’clock breakfast time rolled around quickly on Sunday, it seemed. I was happy to share a breakfast table with Diane & Bert Chandler, Rosie, and for a brief time Barb again. 

A fair group of us who marched the aisles of the Church of Resurrection as 1961 graduates, and some who were married there (Tom and me, June 19, 1965) gathered together at the 11:00 Sunday Mass before parting and going on with our lives in all different parts of the country.

To God goes the glory….and a last rah rah. From the past leader of the zany  RHS Shamrock Pep Club….

Shamrocks are really great, boom, boom boom,
Shamrocks are really great, boom, boom, boom,
Shamrocks are great and they really rate,
Shamrocks are really great,
oh yah, raddi dah,
ha cha
click, click.

Hey, this song is easier to sing than it is to write! 

 

 

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Sing a Single Alleluia!

mrjoneshereandthere.blogspo…

Yesterday, I was driving along in the car and I have to admit I was talking to the angels — I’ve been doing that lately. It was a nice little conversation and after it ended I felt like bursting into the full chorus of the Easter Hymn, Allelulia, Allelulia, let the holy anthems ring!  I could not remember all the words but my heart sang the melody with gusto. I felt immediately blessed and grateful for the good life I have.

 

Breaking into spontaneous song is a good thing to do. It frees up the body and mind. It connects you to something good and something of Spirit. It is like a “noisy-quiet time.” You receive immediate benefits from it.

 

Contemplative silence can lead to revelations of the presence of the One for whom we long — actually I believe it enhances our awareness of “Whom” is already present, always. Contemporary and sacred songs can do the same. We can unite with the wholeness within. How do I know this. I feel my body respond to the Allness of which I am a part.

 

Silly songs from Veggie Tales lighten my cells and make me laugh, a very good thing in deed. Since Daidirriederaming post last week about “Every little cell in my body is happy, every little cell in my body is free…” I’ve had this embedded in me like a singing mantra and it plays at will. I’ve been meaning to teach it to my almost 4 year old granddaughter.

 

I’m big on a dedicated quiet space in my home and have had one for many years now; most often in my writing room, but it’s also been as sparce as my platform rocker I call my prayer chair in a general sitting room. I can choose the times it is not disturbed by other sounds and activity and draw the quiet around and within me. I often sing songs to myself in the quiet too.

 

It was amazing to me the vibrations of peace that chair gives off over the years. Tom’s sister, when she visits, heads straight for it, and in past days solved many life challenges, rocking, talking, humming by herself in it.

 

When we moved from North Carolina back to Michigan, we had a house sale with many large items on bargain price sale. I had one woman who repeatedly tried to buy that rocker, which I declared over and over again, was not for sale. I resorted to sitting in it while she perused and purchased many other items and hovered occasionally near the chair.

 

Quiet spaces can be made in our homes by intention and design. If I were to build a new home, which I don’t see happening at this stage in life, I would include a sanctuary room. Gerry L. Grimsley and Jane J. Young, in their book “Contemplative By Design, tell us how they’ve been called to a ministry of developing quiet spaces.

 

They say that their plans, work and prayer for developing quiet spaces for a 2006 SOULfeast conference for Upper Room Ministries brought them great joy, but they felt particularly blessed by seeing how the participants responded to their individualized spaces where they withdrew from their busy conference schedules for sabbth rest.

 

Their book sets up fifteen different spaces with themes, materials to work with, scriptures, writing and art products to use individually by persons as they come into the space. A participant guide invites them into contemplation and/or activity.  Just reading what is available within that space makes it possible for you to adapt it for yourself in your own home or if you are in the business of giving workshops, you could offer a couple of these quiet spaces within your workshop frame.

 

“How can it be that we can say

our God is everywhere

yet hours pass, and we do not sing

a single Alleluia?

 

Could it be that a minute shift

of focus, of attention

will unveil a feast of the sacred

within our every day?”

 

The authors conclude a carefully designed quiet space will say, ‘discover the feast. Taste. Be fed.

 

PS  A UTube video is popping up here – appears I can’t delete it; If you see, the penguin one, I guess we could think, “We can always dance.” I don’t know what else will pop up.

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The Way of the Miracle Worker

“Be consistently aware of the need to serve God and serve others in any and all of your actions. This is the way of the miracle worker.” Wayne Dyer, Inner Peace Card.

It seems the message of caregivers is up and center for me these days. They are brought to mind in many different ways. One chief way is the light path I tread as Tom recovers from back surgery. Intense at the very beginning, it has lightened for both of us as he progresses well. However, I am very aware of the “New Normal” in a relationship between a caregiver and the care-receiver.

“New Normal” is what Gail Sheehy talks about in her newest book, “Passages in Caregiving”, Turning Chaos into Confidence. As she points out, no one really expects it, but at some point in time just about everyone has been or will be responsible for giving care, for a sustained period to someone close to them.

I know close hand how caregiving has arrived on the doorstep of some of my own close family and friends. One has  diagnosis of early Alzheimers, already at the moderate level of cognition loss. A severe stroke, leaving one in a lengthy hospitalization stay, followed by rehab facility, but eventually homebound where the main caregiver struggles, not only with the “faster than a speeding bullet” arrival of this condition, but his own physical challenges just as this came on.

“The New Normal” makes a shocking arrival in the lives of the spouse as caregiver and the lives of adult children for mom and dad as the aging process, creeping inabilities and serious disease begins to rob their parents of a life they dreamed about and substitutes one that springs new needs on a daily basis.

Our assisted living, progressive elderly communities, and nursing homes are not the total answer to the care-giving scenes taking place across our land. There are not only “loop-holes” in our health care system of the elderly — there are downright minefields for them and their families to maneuver to have adequate care at the end of their lives.

And it is not only an end-of-life issue. Most of us go through our days fairly unaware that a New Normal is possible for any of us at any age. Coming home from my Poolates class today, there was a pretty ugly car crash scene at an intersection I go through daily once or twice.  Anyone connected to that event is looking at least at a temporary New Normal, hopefully not permanent. 

New Normal means routine life has changed for  you in more than the usual ways we all encounter daily change. New needs, new services, new “I can do — I can’t do” benchmarks are in force. New requirements of faith, strength, courage, and belief in self are called upon.

And with that the appearance of caregivers is necessary — ones who care, have always cared, but now will attest to that care in new and different ways. These caregivers are the miracle workers; maybe professionally trained, maybe not, but the care they bring to you finds its sourcelight in their heart.

 Families will all find they need what Sheehy describes as “a circle of care”, not one caregiver who is forced to play God, but a group of persons,  established with an open heart who can make a schedule of availability to serve others with their most natural gifts. It is important to search our own heart and conscience to be able to contribute to the quality of care that will be humbly and gratefully received by the care-receiver.

These are the gifts that God said come from One Spirit and  it is important for individuals to  recognize what is theirs to give. This is a foundation gemstone of the healing process. It is the grace and the ability to accept what has come before us.

As miracle workers, what we think may be the smallest and most insignificent gift is monumental in the eyes of time and God.

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Cells are Conscious – Pass it on!

From my friend in Australia:

 Christine Whitelaw’s blog:    www.dadirridreaming.wordpress.com

Continuing to learn about brain health, Dr Jill Bolte Taylor’s book “My Stroke of Insight” is an excellent resource. Her web site for feedback from readers is rich in inspiring stories of their experiences as they put Jill’s suggestions into practice.

When the left side of Jill’s brain was damaged she appeared a wreck outwardly, unable to speak, or understand speech, unable to walk, unable even to roll her body over. Inwardly she either suffered tremendous pain and confusion, or escaped into another reality, a right brain experience. She writes “The now off-line intellectual mind of my left hemisphere no longer inhibited my innate awareness that I was the miraculous power of life. I knew I was different now – but never once did my right mind indicate that I was “less than” what I had been before. I was simply a being of light radiating light out into the world.  …. in the absence of my left hemisphere’s negative judgement  I perceived myself as perfect, whole, and beautiful just the way I was.”

Jill remembered everything she was experiencing while she was so ill, because she was not unconscious. Her right brain and all the cells of her body remained conscious and aware, processing information. However because of the damage to her left hemisphere she had to relearn how to read and write and walk, and how to make sense of the physical world. It was an effort for her to chose the chaos of recovery over the temptation to slip into the peaceful tranquility of divine bliss brought about by the silence of her judgmental left brain.

Her resolution was to recover and teach others that “peace is only a thought away, and all we have to do to access it is silence the voice of our dominating left mind”

As her left hemisphere began healing Jill was faced with the dilemma of wanting the skills she had lost, but not welcoming the old feelings such as anger, frustration or fear that made her body uncomfortable. She learned to talk directly to her brain saying that she did not want to hook into those neural loops. She says “Suddenly I had much more to say about how I felt and for how long, and I was adamantly opposed to reactivating old painful emotional circuits“.  We can follow her example, refusing to run those painful old circuits, choosing instead to take a right brained view of love, peace, joy and compassion.

Jill made use of cellular consciousness in her recovery. She says she counted her blessings and thanked her brain a thousand times a day for responding so well. She found that her right mind understood that every cell in her body (except for the red blood cells) contained the exact same molecular genius as the original zygote that was created at conception, and that she was the life force power of these 50 trillion molecular geniuses! Jill says she is having a big love fest with her 50 trillion cells, she thanks them out loud every day “Thank you girls. Thanks for another great day!” A feeling of intense gratitude in her heart makes sure the cells understand. Then she implores them “Please heal me“, and visualises her immune cells responding.

Jill says “I unconditionally love my cells with an open heart and a grateful mind”. During the day she cheers them on with each achievement and challenge. It is a two way conversation, with Jill listening to her body and responding appropriately. Here is cheerful song to encourage your cells!

watch?v=qMU-Rtb1FW8

More tomorrow, with suggestions about switching on your right mind.

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Featherbed of Forgetfullness

It’s time to hear from Jan Phillips again. It is hard to catch up with her these days. She has been on the road constantly with her creativity, message and love across the country.

I was looking for some seed ideas to pour forth into my current creative project and this is one of her phrases that took rest in my heart: …”Me falling into this featherbed of forgetfullness,…” from Jan.

So here is a short section of her poetry and prose I am offering from her latest, best-selling book,  No Ordinary Time, the Rise of Spiritual Intelligence and Evolutionary Creativity, pages 74-75.

“To create is to make something whole from the pieces of our lives, and in the process, to become more whole ourselves. It is a healing act, a leave-taking from the chaos as we move from the choppy surface toward the stillness of the center. What was the last thing you created? What pieces were you putting together? Was it healing?”

(Yes, for Sue, it was healing. For in my doing of this one small piece of creation, that very act simply let me know I had not forsaken the completion of the whole project that has had a long standing calling in my soul).

It would not become, as the lyrics of one of Anne Murray’s songs said: …. “before the children of my mind become the orphans of my soul.” This creative child work will be born whole at some future date.  

“Into your hands, I commend my failures,
my rash judgments, my criticisms,
my proneness for separation,
my harsh opinions.
Into the bowl of your cosmic lap
I heave my ten thousand undigested sorrows,
my tempests of thoughtlessness,
my ramblings of misery, chaos, lonliness.

Lies, lies all of them!

Me falling into this featherbed of forgetfullness:
Oh, what a sight!
Remove all mirrors when I flail like this,
when I become a lost one
wandering in the dark.

“Imagine that when we’re born, each one of us comes to earth with the radiance of, say a hundred watt bulb. That’s our natural state — 100 watts. As we go through life, our job is to maintain that brightness, and even improve it if we can. What dims it, we learn through experience, is negativity, anger, resentments, regrets. What brightens it is harmony, balance, joy.”  (Jan Phillips)

I fly on these words of Jan to the upstairs bedroom in the old Wisconsin farmhouse where, as a young grandchild, I enjoyed all the gifts a real featherbed had to give.

And reflecting on Jan’s words,  I think the image of a featherbed of forgetfullness is a great place for my negativity, anger, resentments, regrets to fall…..For my drama to be swallowed up… for my chaos to disappear…for my ramblings to be drown out…for my undigested sorrows to take flight and leave me….for my thoughtlessness to be converted by the softness of the feather quills…. for my lonliness to fall through the depths and width of the feather filling….and for my misery to vanish in the feathery, forgiving down that accepts and molds to my body’s form.

Be gone, all you lies and in the morning I will replace you with a new dawn of harmony, balance and joy.  Let me arise with true love for myself and for others as is the Will of the Divine. Let me think like the 100 watt bulb and experience the radiance of it. Let me speak the words of good I want fulfilled in my life and the good I want to see created in the world.

 I am lucky enough to know, in child-like fashion, the sensual loveliness the feather bed provides. What an open invitation it held for a child at night, weary from the day’s field-roaming adventures. What a playground, it was as though fluffy while Cumulus clouds were my playmates as I sprang about it.

It is nice to think of a feather bed wiping away all the ill-effects and results of forgetting who I truly am — the results of feeling lonely, critical, confused, judgmental, miserable and sorrowful — just as easily as it accepted and comforted me, the small child.

I can lay these defects of character down gently, or even with the celebration of a big leap, landing right in the middle of them, knowing that I can awaken  and remember — in any new moment —  the Truth of who I really am.

That’s putting the pieces together. That’s healing.

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Dreaming in the Mind of God – Slatter

Here is one more guest napkin today by Jean Slatter.

Napkinwriter will begin some of her own new napkins by Tuesday this week.

“CM Journal Page 11: Have you ever had a dream that was so incredibly rich with feeling and emotion that it actually seemed real? 

I love it when I dream. Some of my dreams have provided logical answers about issues I have had in my waking life and some have been extraordinary fantasies that don’t seem to be grounded in any reality I know of.  I have even had the experience of being aware that while I was dreaming a vivid dream, I was both sleeping and watching my dream at the same time. 

Many people believe that dreams are just a brilliant fabrication of our consciousness.  Yet what if there are parts of ourselves that are actually having legitimate dream time experiences?  It’s fascinating to consider, don’t you think?  All we know for certain about our dream state is that we don’t physically go anywhere.  Everything is happening in the mind.

Dream World

Could it be possible that all of life is a dream within the Mind of God?  Shamans use this analogy and say that what we term real life is actually a dream. Quantum physicists believe this is closer to the truth of reality. A wonderful book to read on this subject is The Field by Lynne McTaggart. This book along with many others is showing that everything is energy and that our illusion of matter is being played out on a multidimensional screen called the “field”. 

I believe that we are Creators of experience and our opportunity to create is carried out in the unlimited, unbounded consciousness of God. Any experience that the mind of God can imagine is being brought to life. There have been no limits to what can be explored nor could/should there be. The boundless dream world in the mind of God is running non-stop from the beginning of time to infinity.  If it exists in this reality it is because the mind of God dreamed it.

Our Opportunity to Create

Imagine what fun it would be to design and create your dreams before you drifted off to sleep each night.  Where would you like to go?  What would you like to be?  What emotions would you like to feel?  The possibilities are endless.  You can sail the high seas as a one-eyed pirate or rob a bank and get away with it.  It would be as if a genie gave you a special power to safely experience any adventure or drama that you would like to create.

Forgotten it’s a Dream

But here is the conundrum:  It’s hard to fully experience what it’s like to be chased by a tiger when you know that it isn’t ‘real’.  The tiger is an illusion.  Who you are in the dream is an illusion.  And soon enough the real you will wake up and discover that none of it actually happened.  So, the question is:  how can you make it “real” to yourself?

Well clever you! Turns out you thought of a way to “forget” so that you can be totally enmeshed in the experience. You have fallen asleep to who you really are on purpose so that you can be fully engaged in the illusion. Thus, the dream will seem very real indeed. This is how, I believe, that we are able to have innumerable lifetimes and yet not remember them.

Life is certainly entertaining, isn’t it? 

Is it possible that all of our experiences are being carried out in the imagination/mind/dreams of an infinite being? Understanding how all of this happens has been pondered by the most brilliant of minds of science and poets throughout history and we whereas we may think we have come up with some plausible explanations we may also find out in the end that we haven’t a clue.”

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the following complete statement and links with it:

© 2009 Creative Mystic
Jean Slatter is the founder of the Creative Mystic program which teaches holistic healing modalities and spiritual philosophies intended for self-growth and assisting others on their paths to wholeness. To learn how to create your life without barriers, register for her free information at CreativeMystic.com

About Jean

Jean is the founder of the Creative Mystic program which teaches holistic healing modalities and spiritual philosophies intended for self-growth and assisting others on their paths to wholeness.

Jean believes there is no barrier or separation between you and your divine nature. Through her program she provides easy-to-use and practical tools to reveal the wisdom of the soul and transform your being into the real truth of who you are. Jean believes that we are all powerful creators, divinely sanctioned to express our gifts to the world.

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