All Paths Open to Journey Girl

About the Book

Journey Girl is a story about motherhood and a memoir about secrets– more specifically, it is about breaking them. First-time author Hajec unfolds her journey of becoming a courageous family secret breaker and defeats her fears that she will pay a price to do so. Her quest is to disintegrate the generational silences that surround the death of her mother shortly after her own birth and explore the mysterious childhood memories that still linger as she reaches adulthood. As the author unwinds a tightly-held but harmful family silence, she also introduces to the reader simple, ordinary, and helpful types of silences they can use in their everyday life to bring them peace and balance, not harm and mystery. These are the Islands of Silence that begin each chapter before continuing her own story.

About the Author

Susan Heffron Hajec finds her happy place in everything that has to do with words. With an early start of faithful letter writing to her grandparents, she began to play with themes and stories on paper and loved all English, writing, and theater scripts throughout her school years. After her college graduation, marriage, and motherhood, her personal life followed a natural path to quiet ways of life, contemplative prayer, holistic health, soul writing, and the arts. She then served these interests well in her professional and business life which included: being regional newspaper correspondent, becoming founding editor of a religious newspaper; being an international video spirituality producer; owning A Way with Words consulting and workshop production company. She accomplished extended training and practice with the Masters in SoulCollage®, Labyrinth facilitation, Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina, and Reiki healing arts. With a newfound passion for watercolor art, she states her purpose in life as being faithful to the small things and giving glory to God for the largeness of the gift of life. And most of this is centered in her loving life with family and friends.

 

Journey Girl, Steps in Secrets and Sanctuary is available for order on http://www.amazon.com and http://www.balboapress.com/bookstore —under new releases.

 

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I Have Written a Book

 

It was once a fantasy. Then a dream. A puzzle, perhaps. How would I tell the story? A story of silences and secrets encased in a contemporary contemplative silence of support from which the story grew and took on a voice of it’s own.

It is a story that lived in my heart and needed many years to grow to tell me how it wanted to be told and how it was lived. My book is no longer a wish or an untold tale. I have written this book that tells of a mother lost and mothers found. Blessings and guidance along the way and the determination to speak it in my own voice, not hindered by judgment.

Along the way I have met teachers and mentors….all along the way over many years. I have been feature writer, photographer, columnist and founding editor writing stories of so many others. But one time just two short years ago, when I entered a room I was asked my name and the second question was, “Are you an author?”

The woman’s name was Angela and she and her daughter headed up the meeting and their intention was to inspire those of us “wanna-be-authors” to go ahead and BE ONE. When I left that meeting, where I briefly described the story I wanted to write, I knew the intention was deeply set within me that I would do everything possible to become an author.

It was not a false start this time. I reached back into the many inroads to my story that I had formed and then stalled out on and brought what was meaningful forward. I enrolled once again in Janet Conner’s Intersection for Writers on-line course. I indeed worked toward achieving her AIC award — ass in chair — because that is the way you become an author.

I carved out a writing schedule around which other things were second on the list. This was a mainstay of the day, every weekday. I had to settle for best-effort on other things like cleaning our living space, planning and preparing meals, scheduling medical appointments, and physical exercise at the Y. Writing no longer happened “when I had time.” It now happened all the time. I got in a groove and it felt right.

I’ve had two very important editing and publishing professionals with me from early on in the writing of this book. Both were invaluable and we are still connecting our work together because now that the book is written, the very tedious task of getting it published and to market lie ahead. It has taken 18 solid months to write. I now begin the second rung of the journey. I am in brand new territory now but as I navigate through these open waters, I set my new intention to doing well in this phase and seeing the successful publication of my book, at which time I will be able to answer that second question, “Why, yes, I am an author.”

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Favorite Persons Janet and Catherine and Favorite Place, Catherine’s Studio

 

“I received many many gifts from staying with Catherine Anderson and teaching a Writing Down Your Soul workshop in her studio. A big gift was getting to SLEEP in her studio. Here’s my bed in one corner. What does this remind you of? Think Paris.”  Janet Conners

That is one high honor Janet Conner is mentoring the writer in many of us with our hearts aflame with purpose and divine guidance. She is SoulWriter.

Teaching us to listen to the Voice and record it on the page. I address my Voice as WHO — Whole and Holy One.

 

I am Writer – in – Residence….

…earning my AIC certification —  Ass In Chair.

Artemis, goddess of the heart sets aim on the words that come into being through us…

and Hestia…goddess of the hearth keeps us at home and creative in our writing.

My Hestia is at the loving Crone age and her fire still burns and guides…

Our Plug In For Writers Circle gathering of exquisite women feed the world and shape it into a better world for all in the books that will take seed in the near future.

 

Archangels Michael and Raphael and Angel Gabriel are present to help me during my “office hours” of creativity.

http://www.janetconner.com

 

 

Catherine Anderson of Charlotte NC  is a GRACE FIND for me. I was with her twice in her beautiful and sacred studio at her home, and traced the back yard labyrinth with my feet and the labyrinth of my writing and SoulCollage® cards with my heart and hands.

 

SoulCollage® gives wings to my words. The practice of this beautiful visual/spiritual/artistic practice was begun by Seena Frost and is world-wide now with thousands of facilitators introducing groups to the joy and wisdom building it brings.

 

I Am One Who Is….Blessed Baby.

I Am One whose Power Animal for the writer in me is the Tiger.

 

I Am One who helps you understand the difference between
crash landings and exploration.

I Am One who is grateful to be called to writing,
SoulCollage® and the quiet peace of the labyrinths
I have walked all around the world.

 

 

So Inspiring to be together, create and journal
our Wisdom within.

 

 

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In Love with a Monk

 

 

I have read so many of his books, and also of his fellow monk/friend Abbot Father Basil M. Pennington, who furthered the cause of contemplation and Centering Prayer among Catholics. Two holy, manly clergy who were not afraid of the silence and not afraid to push past limits imposed on the spirituality of Catholics. I love them both and became a friend in life of Father Basil.

Both met sudden, unexpected deaths; Father Merton, electrocuted by a wire that touched water in his bathroom in Bangkok and Fr. Pennington in a car accident where another car raced through a red light at an intersection crashing into the car in which he was passenger and killed him instantly.

 

I am one lucky soul as my writing mentor/guide/soul-infused light Janet Conner is going to plan a writer’s retreat, at my suggestion, at the home of Thomas Merton,  Gethsemani outside Louisville Kentucky next summer. Because by her own admission, she is in love with him too.

 

 

 

Count me there!  Yes. Yes.

 

Peace in every step….Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Communing, reflecting, writing

 

Pretty sure to spend some time in here

 

I will bring the healing graces of Reiki
to “rain down upon us from the heavens above
granting all good things”

 

Below as guest blog is a short account of a wondrous soul taken from the monastery website. ”

“Thomas Merton, known in the monastery as Fr. Louis, was born on 31 January 1915 in Prades, southern France. The young Merton attended schools in France, England, and the United States.

 

At Columbia University in New York City, he came under the influence of some remarkable teachers of literature, including Mark Van Doren, Daniel C. Walsh, and Joseph Wood Krutch. Merton entered the Catholic Church in 1938 in the wake of a rather dramatic conversion experience. Shortly afterward, he completed his masters thesis, “On Nature and Art in William Blake.”

Following some teaching at Columbia University Extension and at St. Bonaventure’s College, Olean, New York, Merton entered the monastic community of the Abbey of Gethsemani at Trappist, Kentucky, on 10 December 1941. He was received by Abbot Frederic Dunne who encouraged the young Frater Louis to translate works from the Cistercian tradition and to write historical biographies to make the Order better known.
The abbot also urged the young monk to write his autobiography, which was published under the title The Seven Storey Mountain (1948) and became a best-seller and a classic.
During the next 20 years, Merton wrote prolifically on a vast range of topics, including the contemplative life, prayer, and religious biographies.

His writings would later take up controversial issues (e.g., social problems and Christian responsibility: race relations, violence, nuclear war, and economic injustice) and a developing ecumenical concern. He was one of the first Catholics to commend the great religions of the East to Roman Catholic Christians in the West.

Merton died by accidental electrocution in Bangkok, Thailand, while attending a meeting of religious leaders on 10 December 1968, just 27 years to the day after his entrance into the Abbey of Gethsemani.Many esteem Thomas Merton as a spiritual master, a brilliant writer, and a man who embodied the quest for God and for human solidarity. Since his death, many volumes by him have been published, including five volumes of his letters and seven of his personal journals. According to present count, more than 60 titles of Merton’s writings are in print in English, not including the numerous doctoral dissertations and books about the man, his life, and his writings.”

Brother Patrick Hart, OCSO

 

http://www.monks.org/

 

 

 

 

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Mystery

 

The Chinese character for mystery, or yugen, is the same character for mountain, which looks like an inverted T with two squiggles on each side of the vertical stem.

“The line is the mountain and the squiggles on either side represent the mist in the valley that invokes a certain anticipation of the hidden.”  (The Zen of Creativity, John Daido Loori)

We often associate mystery with the darker side of life, the unknown. Then in religion and art, mystery is actually light, itself.  I am interested in mystery today because I am attempting to “sort out” and “be with” a great mystery of loss which has befallen my friends, in a sudden and tragic death of a young mother and friend.

Being with this loss is indeed taking up all aspects of mystery — the terrible darkness it brought upon us and the light we must seek to go back to center and live from there.  Peaking around the next corner into the darkness is not my forte.

 

In his writing upon mystery, John Daido Loori,  one of the truly great Zen Masters, says:

“Mystery is the seed of discovery. The term ‘mystical’ means: ‘Having a spiritual meaning that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intellect. It is direct subjective communication that we can’t process intellectually. We can’t see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, touch it, or think it. It is very subtle and slippery, impossible to nail down or explain. Yet we’re somehow aware of its presence, and it has a real impact on us.”

He goes on to explain how we can become aware of its presence.

“In order for us to perceive this subtle quality, three elements must be in place: trust in our spiritual practice, trust in the creative process, and most importantly, trust in ourselves. If any of these are missing, the whole structure collapses and we retreat into certainty. So we trust, even if we can’t explain or justify why we do what we do.” P 194 The Zen of Creativity

I had underlined the first part of this and made notes in the margin when I was first reading this book, probably over fifteen years ago.  After several moves, and still not having my categories together on ever-moving bookcases, I pulled it out today, thinking about Zen, Reiki and Japanese art because I am on the brink of an opportunity to take two workshops in Japanese flower painting and Wabi-Sabi collage next week. Which I am so excited about, I could pee my pants.

Also, because I am filled with grace to have come under Janet Conner’s (Janetconner.com) tutelage since Writing Down Your Soul, Lotus and Lily AND Intersection for Writers on-going instruction modules and books.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT SHE TEACHES …..THERE IS NO WRITING COURSE OUT THERE THAT I KNOW OF THAT INSTRUCTS AND INSISTS ON SPIRITUAL PRACTICE AS PART AND PARCEL OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS.

And her process for writing, to those of us listening and learning, goes directly to accessing that special mystical quality and writing from there….and trusting it. That is her belief and her brand. That is the sweet spot and her students are zeroing in on it. What fabulous books are being authored that are going to reside on bookstore shelves across the world and fly from the internet into homes awaiting their special gifts and wisdom.

SHE IS SO RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT. WE ARE  SO BLESSED, BLESSED, BLESSED.

Just how long did it take to grow the mountains? It’s a mystery, right? So many layers, so many changes, over time…over time. Just like a mystery. It is a mystery to me how my eyes fell upon this section  of the book, after having been out of my sight for so very long. But for me, this is a special seeding time. The field is ripe and the conditions are powerful and potent. I am about my purpose. I have been guided to my guides, here on earth and beyond. I am in good hands. Who’s hands?

Well, that’s a mystery.

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By Napkinwriter   April 24, 2017

Do you know me?

Well, I had all kind of picture computer glitches today, so I don’t have some of the photos I want to go along to introduce you to both Janet and me, but here’s what I have.

Welcome to Napkinwriter, a blog that will wet your appetite for the many stories to come. I really do write on napkins and way sooner than this, I should have had a napkin saver container to “bank” and collect my beginning ideas, words and images I penned on them over the past fifty years at least.   I’ve been writing Napkinwriter since December 2010. What will you see here?

Stories about extra -ordinary people who are in the world disguised as ordinary people; stories about the extra-ordinary days that are given to us all in gifts of “the moment” — one at a time. Stories of grace and angels among us that have touched my life in an unforgettable way. Stories of…..the Mystic Muse, who plays in my day and creates scenes in my nights that I must arise and give form and expression to. And I am going to leave that preposition right at the end of that sentence·

I am a writer by soul command, I am a writer in my personal life and in my professional life. I write to inspire and bring forth the beauty of goodness within each of us and all around us. My Personal Essence energy signature is: I Am Truth Seeker, Peace Maker, Love Giver. I am a beloved wife, mother and grandmother and my joy lies within this way of life. I Am a blessing and I Am blessed.

I work to bring the awareness of our spectacular being to all those I meet in my day; I am beginning to focus attention to the elderly, to hold high the vision; to caregivers, to rise above the challenges and be their High Self, and to include this global Shift movement in the healing powers of my Reiki Master Self, who is already operating in global healing around the world.

I’m glad you’re here. I hope we get some discussion going. Now it’s your turn.

It is NOW 2017. My how time flies. We have returned to our early-marriage roots and live in Lexington Kentucky.  I have lived the writing life for a long, long time both personally and professionally. But NOW IS THE TIME to heed a long- heard call to write a book titled “BEING FAITHFUL TO THE QUIET, Finding the Peace that Soothes Your Soul.”

Janet Conner is one in a star galaxy of my writing space who gives me what I need to stay connected to my writing avocation.  As it says in Terma, The Box

What do you hear when all has gone silent and the in spaces between the silence,  there is a call,…..ignore it if you must, but WHY PRETEND it isn’t there?

It is there…..I am not ignoring it…..and I am NOT pretending it isn’t there.

That is the writer’s life.

I was already teaching Write Now! which is similar to Janet’s Soul Writing when I met her on line and stepped into her writing instruction; not only writing but soul connection, as well.  When I met her, I was in no position to sign up for and pay good money for the privilege of learning from her. Here she was telling about her own starting point of near bankruptcy and I was actually still swirling from a bankruptcy.

But not only did pay and enter into her Soul Writing course, I went on to take her first Lilies and Lotus course, being attracted by the scripture “See the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin…” (and yet they are provided for)…..and for the last six years, I have done less toiling and spinning and found the riches of provision falling into our lives beyond what I would have ever imagined.  Now I easily imagine how I am loved and cared for, regardless of net worth.

Janet Conner

 

It wasn’t exactly free….this loving provision stuff. I did have to learn  how to forgive, not just once but that old 70×7 stuff.  And I learned from Theresa of Avila, as well. There was lots of other stuff too, but it was all good, especially the AIC degree Janet awards.

And it is amazing how all this  learnin’  dovetails right into what is important in my story of Being Faithful to the Quiet.  What a hoot!

A Note to me from Janet

 

So, I’ve had my time, now it is time to hear from Janet. This is one of my longest Napkinwriter posts ever.

 

A LETTER FROM JANET

exploring the fields of the soul . . . together 

Thinking about the writing life?
There are things to consider.
First, it’s a paradox.
Second, it will change your life.
Oh, and you’ll love it with your whole heart.
Deep soul explorers,

I get lots of emails from people who want to be a writer. They all say they can feel a book inside. They’ve felt the presence of that book for years, decades even. But they don’t know how to bring it to life.

I, too, felt a book bubbling up from inside. I, too, wanted nothing more than to write my book and become a professional writer. And I did. I wrote Writing Down Your Soul and I am a professional writer.

But I have a confession. The writing life is nothing like I expected.

It has turned out to be a bunch of big fat paradoxes tumbling over one another, leaving me surprised, startled, and often laughing.

So, if you have one of those books inside you, let me give you a wee taste of the writing life. My hope is that by time you reach the bottom of this letter, you, too, will be ready to say yes to the writing life.

First and foremost, you must understand that creativity is an act of surrender.

And surrender, as I’m sure you know, is a spiritual practice—perhaps the ultimate spiritual practice. Surrender plays out in the two biggest paradoxes of the writing life:

Paradox #1:
You are not the author of your book.

My publisher captured this paradox perfectly when I was behind schedule and she said, “Write the book that wants to be written.” (Oh, you can write the book that YOU want to write, lots of people do; but it won’t set the world on fire, and it won’t change anyone’s life, least of all your own.)

Which brings me to Paradox #2:
Your book writes you.

This is the mystical magic of creativity.

MC Richards, the world class ceramicist, described it this way: “The greatest thing the potter produces is not the pot, but the potter.”

Translated into the writing life: “The greatest thing the writer writes is not the book, but the writer.” In short, writing will change you and change you at depth.

What will change?

• The rhythm of your days. The flow of your days will shift until you find the natural rhythm that feeds your writer’s soul. It’s one of the most important things you will learn in Plug In for Writers.
• Your reading. As your reverence for the written word grows, you will no longer tolerate junk writing, junk ideas, or junk media. Discernment arrives.
• Guides and Guidance. You will realize you are surrounded by angels, messengers, and writing guides. Everyone and everything is your teacher.
• Connections. As you follow the dots between disparate ideas, paths will open that you didn’t know existed. That’s how you write something fresh, new, and exciting–and the publishers only want “fresh, new, exciting.”
• Synchronicities. The more you notice, the more they arrive, until life is flush with magical connections.
• Priorities. Time is sacred. You’ll find yourself stepping away from anything that feels like a sieve.
• Relationship with time. Kairos time will become your new best friend.
• Your writing guides are helping you all the time. I saw everything in Find Your Soul’s Purpose in my dreams.
• Access to theta. Once you know how to open The Intersection in the theta brain wave state, you will discover how to slip into the imaginal realm anywhere, anytime.
• Solitude and silence. You cannot write in chaos and noise. You will crave quiet. Most writers are born or become introverts.
• New Relationships. Friends who cannot see you as a creative writer will fade away. At first it will hurt, but new relationships will arrive.

The biggest surprise of all is that the writing life is a mystical life. Writing is a mystical practice.

I had a delightful confirmation this week in an angel consultation with Margo Mastromarchi. I was seeking guidance on something that has been revealing itself since the New Moon. (I’ve been hinting at this in previous letters, but it’s still unfolding. I promise to explain as soon as I get my own hands around it.)

In the consultation, I asked who was helping me and the answer surprised me: Mother Mary. I asked how she wanted me to connect with her. And Mary answered, “in your writing.”

Her words makes these typing hands feel even more sacred and blessed.

In the end, the writing life is about love.

Love of the message you are blessed to share.

Love of the readers you are blessed to serve.

Love of the written word.

Love of books themselves.

Love of your books.

Love of your writing angels and guides.

Love of your writing and publishing village.

Love of the life you have been given.

If you are called to live and love the Writing Life, please join me in my once-a-year LIVE global telecourse Plug In for Writers. It is unlike any other writing workshop or seminar or retreat.

Come visit the course page and see for yourself. We open Saturday April 29.

Plug In for Writers 2017

When you register by Friday, April 28, you will receive 23 sessions and access to my entire Publishing Village for $30 per session–even less for returning members. That’s $15/hour! That’s crazy, I know, but I sense there are many feeling the call to the mystical life of the writer. And nothing makes me happier than to teach someone how to open The Intersection and step through that door into The Writing Life!

To living and loving the Writing Life,

Janet

To find out more about Janet’s courses and magnificent books, and  with her new one on Soul Purpose, and her radio show on Unity on-line go to her website:    http://www.janetconner.com

More on the Plug In for Writers 2017, go to:

http://janetconner.com/successful-writer-entrepreneur/radio show on Unity on-line

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In Need of a Pilgrimage

“I felt in need of a great pilgrimage
so I sat still for three
days

and God came
to me. “
Kabir

How do I invite Spirit? Are there new ways I’d like to try?

I would like to live in and be aware of my innate holiness,
to rest in this space
of love and wholeness

to feel  gratitude for all I’ve been given
and to deepen my capacity
to hold love and faith.

 

I need to say to Fear, Limitation and Doubt

“IS THAT SO!”

When I recognize them,  I will surround them with my open, loving heart. I will allow them the space to be. And when they wish to leave, “these enemies of ego” as author Joyce Rupp calls them will STOMP ON OUT.

I will release the attitudes I need to release to change the results I am getting.

From:  my personal journal,  “My Life Pages, a companion to The Lotus and the Lily.

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You Are Simply Divine — says your soul

Who ever thought their soul would have a bucket list?

Janet Conner, famed author and Unity on-line radio host personality, does. And with an expert track record in tuning herself and her reading and listening audiences into “soul-land”, I will take her at her word.

She offers a pretty intriguing invitation and challenge: “Have you taken your pulse lately? There is a Divine Presence alive and well and growing, something that marks out a rhythm of what is holy, important and good for you in your life. It knows the life of the Divine is your life and so is the Love and Presence of the Divine.”

I like lists and I do pretty well with directions and recipes. Many years ago and one day at a time, I learned through the Twelve Step Program how to thoroughly follow the path which promised I would not fail. It opened to a full life, but for the grace of God, I would not have today, without the guidance and companionship of many of the members.

I’ve known Janet Conner for five years now and besides being authentic in her words as an author, she seems to companion her readers and followers all along the way of discovery, in her books, in her Internet seminars, with her news on Facebook and in her on-line Unity discussion programs with radiant guests that make the hour fly by.

And what Janet wants to companion us with is purely ……soul inspiring.

In fact, there are soul-writers writing in soul journals all over the globe since the publication of her first book, Writing Down Your Soul. I, along with many other writers, built in a daily practice of quiet time and writing down questions or just filling a page with stuff. Then we listened. For what? For God to answer. Yes, and when the message came (and it always does), we had blank space on the left hand side pages of the journal, reserved for God, and we wrote what we heard.

This was my introduction to Janet Conner around  2010, from an article written from her in Daily Word, Unity’s monthly inspirational booklet, which I had read faithfully since the 1970s.

I continued to work with Janet with her Yearly Intention Mandalas, which she wrote about in her second published book, The Lotus and the Lily.  Again, much more soul work with recognizing the bang-ups of life, the gifts in the pain, and some power-shaking methods of finally forgiving self and others.

The design of the mandala focuses on the inner conditions you intend to live that year and statements or images of manifestations of good you wanted to appear in your life. Really, really BIG things you have no idea how they will come about. Just put them on there, said director Janet.

My 2013 Intention Mandala center with BIG manifestations images (not shown) on circumference

I have lived each yearly mandala I have made over the last five years now with astounding manifestations that have appeared that I, by myself, could not have produced.

I trust that my soul is at the center of this all.

In Janet’s latest book, Soul Vows, she recognizes the vows she formally makes to her soul as lifelong companions whose beauty and depth she can never exhaust. Thus, the pulse she speaks of needs to be recognized as both human and Divine.

She calls this union….”the new I”.

“The vows, themselves, were always breathing and living in a space of vast consciousness. They were always big — It is us who have slowly expanded our consciousness to meet them”…and then to make this just a little more puzzling, but thrilling, she adds, “filled with paradox.”

Janet considered her soul vows of over fourteen years, faithfully said upon rising each morning, to be the most important prayer of her life. Yet they had a startling change within her as the meaning of “the new I” came upon her. Their deeper nature called upon her to unite the Divine, living Presence into the human part of the vows. Within her book, she is that guide I talked earlier of needing. She presents a great map of the journey to the divine union through soul vows.

So what about that bucket list? Does my soul really want something of me? When Janet asked that same question, she looked to the fingers of her hand and her soul voice proclaimed, “Yes, I want 5 things:

1)  To connect with Source   @) to commit to values   3) to serve a purpose   4) to express itself   5)  to create a life”

Janet Conner, in finding her soul-partner publishing company, has dedicated both her writing and teaching life and her very living of life to soul communication. I witnessed and partook of many graces of her purpose, journey, and passion to be open, vulnerable and sharing of the deep messaging type of pilgrim she is.

In general terms of this bucket list, I don’t see one which honestly does not resonate in my own soul and which has not been present as a type of large, overriding value in my life  when I was busy in the details, messiness, pain, joy and grace of “life goes on.”

I’ve always sought a center. These are very centering ideals. They serve anyone of contemplative nature and even assist those who value a noisy, raucous life style. “There are many gifts, but One Spirit.”

I, for One, am paying attention to my soul’s bucket list. When its happy, I’m happy.

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Photo Opp – Changes in My Creativity Room

It’s a process! A little at a time. Some of the changes you can see. Some you cannot. Some of the inside changes are hidden away in my computer files, organizing and planning for upcoming projects.  Some inside changes are taking root in my heart and intention to complete long-awaited and dreamed of “children of my mind” before they become “orphans of my soul” as Anne Murray sang in one of her songs which did not make the pop charts.

Those on the outside are designed to create more light, space and inspiration in my room.  Also to rid myself of the papers and images that I can let go of to make room for the new. This is my plan. I already feel I am sitting in more light as I write this.

Like the blank page I come to most days in my writing practice, I have cleared a surface for work and clear thinking. Also some “moodling” as Brenda Euland, author and teacher, calls it. That’s like daydreaming, which many of us have been discouraged from doing at an early age in the long-gone-by days.  Opening space for the little, unconnected to purpose thoughts that don’t seem to be on the highway to any “big idea.”

Storing, but not putting out of sight my Reiki table, clearing the center space of the room and making it easy for set up when needed. Journals, that need harvesting reside on the bottom shelf, room for Soul Collage essentials on next shelf up, while many more materials are stored away in closet awaiting the next workshop or call to service.

My favorite “go-to” books on writing and spirituality and world evolution have designated positions within the bookcase shelves These are topped off by my $10 garage-sale buy world globe to keep my consciousness open to our world and current conditions. The two turn of the century 1999-2000 memorial white and gold plates refresh my consciousness that, indeed, my gift of life includes living through the time of the 1900’s into the years of 2000.  Fifteen of them so far which with a few more months of grace will include celebrating 50 years of marriage to my true soul-mate and life, service and love to my family of children, their spouses and our grandchildren. It’s been the best life I could ever have thought of.

My prayer chair for reflection and my Reiki panels, and a long time framed picture, “He Shall Hear My Voice”, and surely He has over each of these past 72 years!

My new altar for Spring, with my grandmother’s embroidered linen as altar cloth, the angels guarding me, St. Francis keeping me fresh to be a channel of peace daily in my life.   My Little Sue doll from Rosann, a treasured and loved gift from “the sister I never had”.

The mandala wall hanging is one I bought at one of the IWWG workshops I attended back in the 1990s, and this year it will serve as a permanent mandala design on which I will create my yearly Intentions Mandala.   My 2015 Intention Mandala is titled,  “I Am Living As Love”…..in my mind, my heart, my hands, my life, my world.

I have been creating these Intention Mandalas since working with Janet Conner. The focus of these mandalas in on the inner conditions we commit to live during the year.  What we hope to manifest gets listed on the circumference of the mandala…..these manifestations, large and small, have regularly showed up in my life since I’ve been making these and living by them and it is truly a huge act of faith and amazement.  I am so grateful to Janet, of Writing Down Your Soul that these mandalas are in my life, as well as my soul writing journals.

Onward through my light-filtered room.

As I said, it’s a process. There is much left to be done…..a day or step at a time!

And then, there is this!

I am graced with Grandma Tanberg’s embroidery of the 1940s. She is the mother of my birth mother, who died within days of my birth. I had the great honor to know Grandma into my high school years.  She was my “huggy” grandma who giggled a lot and played with my brothers and cousin Diane whenever we were together.  She didn’t mind getting us in trouble either!

And when I approach the unwritten loose leaf page or the blank computer screen to be filled, I only have to remember these screensaver rules and I am off again.

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My Writing Blessing

I wrote this blessing as part of an assignment from an on-line course with Janet Conner, author of Writing Down Your Soul and the Lily and the Lotus, and numerous other books and on-line courses.

This is a prayer I am encouraged to come to each day before I begin my writing. I must confess, I may not accomplish that, but I always do come to my writing time with a sense of gratitude, wonder and awe for the partnership that is about to begin between my muse and me.

As I look upon these words today, it occurs to me that I have prayed it often enough for the blessing to take root within me and I can say in all truth that this is who I am and how I live my life today and it has been coming forth since the original day of this writing.

I like it just this way.

My Writing Blessing

by Susan Heffron Hajec
Truth Seeker, Peace Maker, Love Giver
and
Napkinwriter
written on September 1, 2011

May I wake to each new dawn, alive and alert, with gratitude that this is the Day that the Lord has made.

May I rejoice in the Presence of the Divine. May the angels be leaders of light and joy today on my writer’s path.

May my writing flow from my loving heart. And may these writings increase love and inspiration in the world through countless readers who are led to them.

May the light of my soul infuse my writings with the power of truth, Peace and Love.

May this light reflect the beauty of my own soul to attract and reflect the light of others.

May this light become an impassioned and unquenchable flame within me. May it attract like a magnet all good and prosperity in my personal life.

May this writer know that she is daily provided for in the grand plan of life and that she doesn’t control that plan.

May this writer sense the possibility and potential that surround her and engulf her this very day. May she serve her world through careful writing and reflection.

May I go into the night humble, gracious and fulfilled.

May my writer’s soul always renew and companion me in grace to the next word to be written.
Amen.

(some inspiration of the pattern of this blessing, provided by John O’Donohue’s A Blessing in Anam Cara, page 160.

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