Friday

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It's Friday-the end of another work week for many. There's a sense of things slowing down for a couple of days, a sort of collective sigh of relief. We made it through another week. For me, Friday is a day off-the first day of my "weekend" and a time of reflection. Reflection on those things for which I give thanks over the past several days.

It's been another intense week for sure. With Uranus moving through the last degrees of Pisces, people have felt emotional, fragile, distressed. I've had more than one person-friends, family, students, and clients-call saying they feel their whole worlds are falling apart. Some are dealing with more serious challenges than others, but everyone is feeling unstable right now. Things are changing.

Okay-I feel it, too. I'm also dealing with my own Uranus things. I ask myself, though, at the end of each day, and again at the end of each week (Friday) what can I be grateful for? Oh, so much, my friends!

I dealt with two grown children in crisis over what they will do after law school. (These two were even fighting over which of them I'd be available for as they set up their own law practices!) I was able to be present for each child, listening to two very different descriptions of the same set of circumstances. Thankfully, too, I was able to leave it to them to work through their crisis with all the creativity each possesses.

I managed to talk my little momma into seeing an audiologist. She hasn't been able to hear anything in months. Today, after having her ears cleaned and ordering a hearing aid, she's thrilled that the house seems so noisy to her!

I was a help to my employer-someone who often feels as if he's carrying the load of an entire congregation of struggling Christians on his shoulders alone.

I shared an invocation to the Goddess with a friend, a channeled work with a fellow healer, love, support and concern. And I received so much more than I ever gave to any of them.

It's Friday-the end of another week. And as I sit here reflecting on the comings and goings during a very hectic time, I know that I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams because of the love, caring and sharing with friends and family.

Namaste!

Forgiveness and Prosperity

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Tithing-giving ten percent of what I make at the point where I receive spiritual support and inspiration-has become a very important part of my spiritual practice. Some weeks I give more than others, but I always give at least that ten percent or more, blowing on my gift to give it life and with a joyful and grateful heart. I felt I was doing well with this. Regardless of the numbers I was dealing with when I made my gift, I knew that more would come to me-and it invariably has.

I've been dealing with some anger issues of late in regard to some people who owe me rather large sums of money and who seem to think it's okay to let me wait. It's a resentment that's been under the surface. I certainly wasn't telling anyone that what lay beneath my sweet veneer was a growing rage at the unfairness that these people never put me at the top of the list when it came to paying their debts. If I didn't talk about it, kept it to myself, surely it didn't make that much difference, did it?

This past Sunday I got the answer to that question. (I continue to tell people-don't ask the question if you don't want an answer!) I had my tithe and offering all ready to put in the offering plate, and as usual was giving it a blessing when the scripture was read--"So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5.23-24)

I am NOT a Bible scholar. In fact, when it comes to sacred text, I tend to look anywhere but the Bible. Yet, here I sat with my tithe ready to give, holding a resentment against ones who are my brothers for their failure to pay me what they owe. I had to leave the sanctuary before the offering plate was passed.

I sat alone waiting for the service to be over contemplating what had just happened. Not that there is no merit in my tithing. But can I honestly say I am giving to Spirit with a cheerful heart if I am holding a grudge against another who owes me money? Who is it that provides my prosperity? Apparently I'd been holding those others responsible for my lack of prosperity. But if the Universe is what provides everything for me, then I have no need of their payment. Could it be that by holding resentments against these others that I've also been denying myself unlimited prosperity?

Oh, wow-talk about your humbling experiences. After quite a lot of self-examination and becoming willing to forgive those who I'd felt owed me, I was able to make my offering. It was a unique experience as I gave that offering. There was a freedom and joy added I'd not had before, and an affirmation that those others against whom I've held resentment are doing the best they can do also.

We can work the Universal laws and principles 24/7 and get tremendous positive results. However, when we hold grudges, we bind ourselves to others and those bindings keep us from realizing the unlimited supply and support available when we free the other from what we perceive as a debt. When we fail to forgive, or to at least become willing to forgive, our gratitude has little depth, and therefore our results are only lukewarm.

I'm grateful today for the experience I had. Yes, it was humbling. But today I am free as I make my offerings to an abundant Universe that provides bountifully for me.

Namaste!

Sick Days

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It's February 3-Chinese New Year. Welcome the Year of the Rabbit. It's another brutally cold and gray day. We are awaiting yet another snowfall here in my little home town-unusual for us to get any snow here, much less two significant snowfalls in one winter. So there is a certain amount of anticipation, just not quite so exciting as the first snowfall a few weeks ago. The bitter cold is wearing on all of us...

I've been nursing a cold for the last week. Thought I was doing better, then today had to admit I just feel awful. Not well yet! The cough is worse, and that combined with the cold weather has left me sore and just plain miserable.

Yet I find even though I'm feeling worse today physically I have so much for which to be grateful. With the snow coming I have an excuse to just lie around the house in warm, fuzzy clothes. I find when the weather is so cold I'm very thankful to live indoors with heat! There are people suffering through this year's mega-storm without heat or lights. I have people who love me and whom I love. My goodness I really have nothing to complain about.

Sending out warm thoughts to those who are not having such an easy time makes my litte cold a little easier to deal with.

Namaste!

January Blahs

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There's no doubt this can be a difficult time of year for a lot of people. The holidays are over-a relief for some of us, a let-down for others. By this time many people have already failed at keeping those New Year's resolutions they made a few weeks ago. The skies are grey a lot of days, and everything has gone back to a tedium to which by February we once again become accustomed.

I received an e-mail the other day from a friend-all it said was why he hated this time of year. Of course, if we hate this time of year, can't we just as easily find reason to hate every other time of year! What can we do to overcome living lives of boredom and quiet desperation?

Like so many other people, I've been facing more than the usual number of challenges in 2011. My father (85 years old) fell on the 3rd and hasn't been out of his bedroom since. My children have been dealing with their 93 year old grandmother's hospitalization and now her release from the hospital-home or to an assisted living facility? My younger daughter is dealing with relationship issues. The list goes on.

But this isn't about who has the longest, most horrible list of "things that have gone wrong." The people who I work with-my clients, my students, people on my prayer list-have shown me that for all the "things gone wrong" on my list, I've only been inconvenienced. I really don't have any problems.

Sure, I get the doldrums. When the weather is dreary, the parents aren't doing so well and the children are in crisis, I can get just as depressed as the next person. However, I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I am blessed with the most wonderful set of friends, each of whom brings me a special gift whenever we communicate. Some of those friends are fellow Lightworkers-we recharge each other's batteries when we are together and provide loving support for one another when we are threatened with getting caught up in the whirlwinds that are always around us. And even those who aren't maintaining as high a vibrational pattern as the Lightworkers are dear, sweet, loving individuals who are right there if I say, "Okay, I'm broke now and I need prayers."

Yes, the weeks following the holidays are different. Just as we are changed when we return home from a vacation, the changes in routine necessitated by the holiday season cause us to return to our mundane lives as changed individuals. I guess the question is, have I changed for the better? What do I have now to contribute to the whole so that even during a time of year when most people have the blahs I continue to do my part in the ascension of the planet?

I learned years ago when I was spending the holidays alone and away from my family that holidays are just like any other day, and I want to live each day well and to the fullest. I think that also applies to the days and weeks following those holidays. It's not a time to sit back and not participate in life, but to participate more fully. We are given so much everyday. What a shame it would be to miss a chance-no matter what day of the year-to give back.

Namaste!

Snow Day!

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We are enjoying a snow day here in my little Southern hometown. Although other places I've lived in this state usually had several snow days each year, I live far enough south that we rarely see snow, let alone enough to declare a snow day. Of course, the school children are thrilled, and even those who have to be out in it have slowed down their pace to drive on the ice. I, for one, am grateful not to have to be out on the ice and to be able to enjoy the peace and tranquility of this pure white blanket.

I think everyone is needing an excuse to slow down a bit after the last week. 2011 took off like a speeding bullet. Astrologically, we are experiencing a rare period of time when there are no planets retrograding-everything is fast-forward for about three weeks. And although we all want this fast forward movement, it can be overwhelming when we gain a momentum we've never experienced before. Things, situations, relationaships, etc. are playing out rapidly from the mundane to the fabulous. And even though the fast forward movement is a positive thing, we have to be prepared to deal with the not-so-positive too.

That was definitely my experience last week during the new moon/solar eclipse. (They tell you things come in threes and I sincerely hope they don't come in fours or fives!) I had my own family crises to deal with last week (three of them). I was able to be present for those who needed me here--and at the same time I was called on by more clients for spiritual guidance. There was opportunity for us to come together as community and provide what we had to the higher good of all concerned. I was exhausted at the end of each day and wondered how long the intensity would last. I could tell everyone was experiencing the increase in intensity too.

Yesterday as the first snow flakes began to fall I got my answer. It was as if the Mother sensed Her children (or at least this child) needed a nap! She reminded me that the peace we long for is found in silence. I stood for quite some time on my front porch last night, watching the snow fall. Mother Earth invited me deep within to that space where nothing is disturbed. She reminded me that even as we move through these chaotic times, there is always that sacred space within where we can never be harmed. As She wrapped her pure white blanket around me, I went to that place where I am safe and healed and whole. And in the awareness of Her Presence, I rested in peace.

Namaste!

Be Happy Now

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I am dealing with more than a few physical discomforts on this first Monday of the new year. I slept only restlessly all night and woke up with a headache and some kind of stomach disturbance. Not to mention the normal aches and pains that go along with cold winter mornings. Oh, and of course the mental aspect would like to bring me down--when, oh when will my house sell so I can pay off my creditors and be debt-free? And to top it all off, we are just now moving into the transformational part of the ascension process, so there is all kinds of chaos, confusion and fear creeping into my awareness from the mass consciousness. Wow, things look grim, huh?

I could use all of this as my own personal excuse to give up-get sucked into the fear and foreboding of things to come. Be unhappy. I certainly have been given an invitation to join in! I mean, after all, I can't be happy when I'm sick physically and my mental and emotional bodies seem to be teetering on the brink of destruction, can I? By all outer appearances I don't have much to show for my nearly 60 years on this planet. Why don't I just join the party, dive right into the fear and desperation, maybe even check out of this incarnation?

But all of that is just backwards thinking, isn't it? I mean, when have any of us had everything exactly the way we think would be perfection in our lives? Once we take on a physical body, we all face the challenge of being in this world but not of it. The world-and being in a physical body-can be a really difficult place for a soul to be. Yet all of us-ALL of us-who are here on the planet at this time asked to come now, to be a part of the Great Shift of 2012.

I am a child of the Universe-just as you are-and I have a right to be here. The world owes me nothing. But the Universe gladly provides all that I need and more. For all the things I say I want-the new car, the house, the computer, the cell phone, etc.-what I truly want when I express my desire is to be happy. I can have all of it in this moment-at any moment. So "acting as if" I am happy now is no longer "acting as if." I am either happy or I'm not. It's all my choice.

Today, as I nurse my sick tummy and my headache, I choose to be happy now. To enjoy the journey-all of it-knowing that an abundant Universe prospers me in every moment. All I have to do to have more happiness in my life is to cause others to experience happiness in theirs. Oh, and that invitation to jump on the desperation train? I think I'll pass!

Namaste!