Category: Life changes

Embody the Fool

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Today, April 1, is All Fools’ Day. On this day, many engage in pranks. I found myself thinking about this day from another perspective. Normally, people don’t want to be thought of as a fool. But I wonder if there are situations when acting like the fool is a good thing?

Embody the Fool

Over the last months, storms of all kinds have taken their toll. Despite that, many still insist there is no global warming. To them, those who challenge their mindset are fools. Are we not encouraged look foolish on our world’s behalf?

In the corporate world, standard business practice for laying off people is to use the phrase, we’ve eliminated your position, rather than honestly calling it what it is. Ironically, some of the same businesses talk about the importance of their employees. Yet they demand long work hours for insufficient pay. In both cases, might we be called to play the fool and call them on it?

Let’s look at this from an even more personal perspective. For those whose childhood was marked with trauma and abuse, it was critical to be invisible in order to stay safe. Taking risks or trying something new would be foolish. Such a person might conclude that it’s better to stay in a job that you hate or a relationship that is unhealthy. And some would consider it foolish to dig into the trauma, even if it might bring healing. Yet might this foolishness lead to peace and possibilities?

This week, many in the world celebrate Holy Week. It starts with Palm/Passion Sunday, which marks the day that Jesus enters Jerusalem, a place in which he ultimately dies. Some would consider traveling there foolish. Religious leaders of the time would consider him foolish and dangerous for what he taught. Yet, he willingly embodied the fool to follow his calling.

During the month of April, what if we embody the fool? What if we take risks that reflect our purpose, even if they might be scary or difficult. What if we to stand up to care for all people and our universe? What if we demand honesty from corporations?

 What do you say? Are you with me?

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Healer Menace and Miracle: Chronicles of a Spirit Healer

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Hi everyone. This isn’t one of my usual blogs. This is actually an announcement about the fact that I recently submitted a book proposal to a publisher. The title above is the working title of my spiritual fantasy. It will be the first book in a series.

Admittedly, this type of writing is a significant departure from my blogs thus far, as they have been discussions about God, purpose, self-improvement, and the like. However, like my blogs, the book does reflect the intent of my website, to inspire people to remember their innate divine self and their unique gifts and calling.

As mentioned in my post last December, the idea for it came unexpectedly after attending a writers workshop at the end of 2021.

This video introduces you to the storyline of the book, and the main character Thom Macirdan.

Announcement: Book proposal submission.

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Strengthening our Connection

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The eve of the day on which many celebrate the birth of God as human, a bringer of light.
The seventh day of Hanukkah, representing the seventh day that the temple lantern remained burning.
The third day following the Winter Solstice, marking the coming of more daylight.

These events call out our connection to the divine. I believe we already have that innately. For like Jesus, we are incarnated essences of the divine, and bearers of that same light.

I’ve been reading James Redfield’s Celestine Prophecy series again. Its characters explore their connection to source, including remembering their life’s purpose, and committing to resolving past hurts that limit their ability to do so. Through their discussions, they identify coincidences and signs from the divine that can support that.

I love reading these types of books, because they resonate with my own journey. In my case, fear has been a limiter. This has surfaced in such ways as fear of trying something new or getting it wrong. To help me heal and move past this, I regularly seek guidance from the divine.

This morning, at 4:30 am, I awoke believing that I had just received such guidance. Now, my understanding is that between the hours of 3 and 5 am, we are especially sensitivity to divine messages. Mine was an invitation to strengthen my connection. That message was preceded, over the last month, by four signs, which alluded to it. The first was the suggestion to read the Redfield series again. The second was an oracle card that acknowledged that although my path has been a meandering one, it serves my life purpose. The last two are signs that some of you might not believe: a flickering overhead kitchen light (one of four) caused by a loose wire, and an occasionally unresponsive wireless mouse, neither of which are resolved yet. This message didn’t point out what I wasn’t doing wrong, but communicated encouragement and hope.

At this time of year, when we light candles or trees, and celebrate connections, what messages or signs have you received? I truly believe that you are provided them. If you haven’t noted any, no worries. You’ll receive more.  Just keep your eyes, ears, and hearts open, and ask your higher power or God to help you recognize them.

May the blessings of this season warm you heart, and make you glow with divine light.

p.s. After I wrote this but before I posted it, I went for a walk. While listening to music, a commercial came on that essentially said that despite the hardships and challenges we face, we’ve got this.

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Lead your Dream; Embody your Vision

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What is your dream or vision? Are you living it? If you are still searching for yours, one way to find it is to consider what you are drawn to. What excites you or arouses your passion?

Two years ago, my passion resulted in the creation of my website, in service of my calling as a spirit healer. Up until now, besides posting blogs, my vision included writing a self-help book. But a year ago, that plan took a surprise direction when I attended a writing workshop and heard a participant explain that she wanted to write a fiction book that introduced children to spirituality. That idea sparked a flame in me that has turned into a blazing fire now, as I near completion of my first book in a spiritual fantasy series, called Healer Menace and Miracle (working title).

I have to say, that from the start, writing about the adventures of my main character, Thom, coming into his spirit healing gift, has been a blast. As I put the words on the paper, I felt daily inspiration writing about Thom’s encounters, from a run in with an unscrupulous merchant who wanted to use him, to Thom healing a dying toddler, to name two. Wave after wave of joy swept over me as I described Thom’s journey as an emerging healer.

Throughout this year, I must admit that I wondered about publishing my book. Three months ago, I signed up for the Celebrate Your Life conference. Unbeknownst to me when I signed up, I learned that one of the sponsors, Hierophant Publishing, was inviting participants to submit a proposal before the end of the year, from which they would select one person to whom they would offer a free contract. For the last month, I’ve worked on my proposal. While it isn’t quite as enjoyable as writing my book, it certainly is key to manifesting this part of my dream. Since I don’t know if I’ll be selected, I am letting go of the outcome, trusting that what happens is for the highest good.

Returning to the blog title: Lead your dream; embody your vision: Through both the workshop participant’s comment and Hierophant Publishing’s offer, God and my spirit guides invited me to embody my vision in an unexpected way. Rather than just following my dream, I felt called to lead it; in other words, I had to put in time and effort to give birth to it.

At the start of this last month of the year, what steps have you taken to embody your vision and lead your dream? Those steps don’t have to be large. They could even be as small as visualizing your dream in a meditation or even creating a Vision Board. As you enjoy spending time with your loved ones, take the time to reflect on where you are and where you want to be. So, that come January, you have a vision in mind and a plan to manifest it.

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Tragedies and blessings

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Tragedies and blessings – how do you wrap your head, heart, and spirit around them, especially when they happen within a few days of each other?

Three weeks ago, I was preparing to attend a retreat. I had signed up for it without knowing the primary speaker. It didn’t make sense. But my guides, God, and the angels agreed that I should attend. I was looking forward to discovering what had drawn me to it.

Six days later, two days before the retreat, I learned that my niece and nephew’s second son, Bennett, just 6 months old, suddenly died. Bennett was a healthy and happy child. No words can describe the anguish that my niece and nephew are going through, not to mention that of his older brother. How can anyone wrap their heads around such a tragedy?

My husband and I had met Bennett for the first time a few weeks before, and even held him on our laps. What was so striking about him was that when he looked at you, you felt like he was looking into your soul. Watching him being fed by his grandmother (my sister), I believed he would grow into a sensitive, passionate, and even holy man. I looked forward to seeing that happen.

At my niece’s request, the funeral service was just the immediate family. So, I still attended the retreat. I shared about my great nephew’s death. And many came up to me, expressing sorrow, including the retreat leaders, and telling me that they would be praying for Bennett’s family.

During the retreat, through the talks and exercises, I experienced many aha moments about healing and embodying your highest self. They were truly blessings, for which I felt gratitude. Yet, at the same time, images of Bennett’s smiling face would pop into my head as a stark contrast.

So, I return to my original question. How do you wrap your head, heart, and spirit around this? Wasn’t Bennett cheated from being able to embody his highest self? As a spirit healer and someone who talks to the divine daily, you would think that I would have answers. I don’t. Just this morning, I walked by a mother carrying an infant. I imagine my niece doing the same, and feeling a stab to her heart.

While I don’t have answers, I do have some thoughts. First make space for all of the emotions and thoughts that arise, as I am trying to do. Honor any anger, sorrow, confusion, when they come. Even honor any guilt you might have about having a good day. Next, reach out to loved ones to share those emotions. Even scream and yell at God and ask for understanding. And finally, be gentle with yourself, take time away if you can, treat yourself to a sweet (or whatever takes the edge off) if you can’t, and just do your best to get by.

My heart forever goes out to my great nephew Bennett and his family.

Addendum: After publishing this blog, I find myself dissatisfied with my suggestions, even though I do believe in them. What makes this further dissatisfying, much less confusing, is the song that keeps going through my head, Requiem from Dear Evan Hansen. As mentioned elsewhere, I regularly get messages from my guides and angels through music. In this case, what the singers are expressing is so different from what Bennett’s family and my family feels. Is this truly a message? If not, why does it keep popping up? It just doesn’t make sense. What message am I meant to get God, guides, and angels? What healing am I being guided to offer?

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They call me Tavi

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One of my favorite fantasy series is “The Codex Alera” by Jim Butcher. The main character, Tavi, faces numerous challenges as he discovers his identity. One reason I like this series is that when Tavi encounters a situation that scares him sh**less, he proceeds anyway because he knows it’s for the good of all.  As he prepares to face another challenge, his partner tells Tavi, “Fear is the enemy. Respect it. But do not let it conquer you before the fight has begun” (Butcher, 2008, p. 334).

I resonated with this advice, and wrote about my own approach to it in my last blog, “Who is driving the bus?” Over the last few weeks, while traveling, further insights arose. The first is about shifting my direction. The second is about my call to serve.

In interacting with my Mindset Makeover group, one of my team used the word shift to describe the changes she is making. The word jumped out at me powerfully. For many years, I’ve worked to change some aspect of myself to increase my self-esteem. On hearing the term shift, I realized that I experienced that word as a gentle direction adjustment rather than an about face, which is how I have viewed change. Shift reflected that I was already on the right path and mostly aligned. So, it felt easier to implement.

During my recent travels, I found myself repeatedly applying this metaphor. For example, when I heard about many flight cancellations and anticipated having difficult conversations with family, I was able to shift my attention from the fear that arose to my intuition and let go. Time and again, as small or large fears surfaced, I applied this approach. It felt so right, even if there were times that the outcomes associated with my fears weren’t as perfect as I hoped.

The second realization was about service. Through the Mindset workshop, I realized that in my studies over the last year, I erroneously thought I had to learn more before really being of service. Embracing the shift metaphor enabled me to see and respond to opportunities to serve in the most simple ways.

Connecting and serving

One of the most profound opportunities was with my niece, Maureen. Maureen has Down syndrome, at a level that is considered profound. As a result, she has limited ways to communicate. For the last 25+ years that I’ve traveled to visit my husband’s family, including Maureen and her parents, while I have shown her love, given her hugs, and so on, I must admit that felt a little stiff. I was fearful of doing the wrong thing with her.  Both the shift metaphor and the reminder that the simplest way to serve is to love, enabled me to relax and trust my intuition. So, for this visit, I played with Maureen, held her hand, helped her move around her home, and just sat with her so her parents could attend to other things. It was delightful. Maureen was all smiles. It was such a treasured experience.

As you travel your own road to wholeness and service, perhaps the shift metaphor would be useful to you, and enable you to open up to opportunities that you might not have considered before.

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Butcher, J. (2008). Princeps’ Fury. London: Penguin Books, Ltd.

Who is driving your bus?

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I’ve just finished the Mindset Makeover course. As mentioned in an earlier blog, the focus of this workshop was to identify and release one obstacle keeping you from doing what you want to achieve. My block was trusting my intuition.

Through the workshop, I discovered that my obstacle’s goal was to keep me safe. While that was important as a child, it only limited me as an adult. The overwhelming feeling associated with this obstacle was fear. As a result of the workshop, two realizations emerged.

The first was understanding that my obstacle was tied to spiritual perfectionism. This unconscious goal constantly reminded me that I was not ready to be a healer, because I didn’t have enough training. This built in me the desire to attend as much training as possible so that I would be “spiritually perfect.”

Who is driving your bus?

This awareness made me also realize that my fear of getting hurt or doing it right might not completely go away. So, I couldn’t just wait until it was gone before doing what I felt called to do. In other words, I could no longer allow my fear to drive my bus.

As part of my Certified Angel Guide training, I was asked to offer healing to another. Even though I felt fear, I knew I needed to finally offer it. Now, I had previously printed out the instructions for doing so to ensure that I “did it right.” But it was difficult to offer while attempting to read the instructions at the same time. At some point, I realized that I hadn’t followed the them exactly, and that’s when my intuition nudged my fear out of the driver’s seat and informed me that it didn’t matter because my intention was clear. Further along in the healing, my intuition called me to make further changes in how I did the healing. It felt right and very freeing. The next steps are for me to continue practicing this change of drivers.

I wonder if you have had experiences where you felt called to do something but hesitated or didn’t proceed because fear was driving your bus. I’d invite you to build up your trust in your intuition, so, if fear does arise and start driving your bus, you can ask your intuition to take over the driving.

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Two Gifts

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I recently received two gifts from the divine.

The first happened last week. I found myself thinking about my connection to my divine teachers, but not feeling their love. I wished I could feel it. Immediately, they reminded me of my meditation video about connecting with them, and suggested that I take that to the next level with love.

So, I brought to mind what I feel when my husband looks at me with a twinkle in his eyes and ones that glow with love. As I I feel that love in my heart and gut, I apply it to my divine teachers. Coming from a childhood where I was mostly taught to fear God, feeling this love is such a gift. So, I’d invite you to try this.

The second occurred yesterday while listening to Radleigh Valentine, a spiritual teacher who spoke at a workshop I’m attending. He said that when he faces challenges, he relies on his determination not to be defeated and his faith. His faith is based on knowing that his divine guides support him, as evidenced by the signs and synchronicities that he’s previously received from them. On hearing that, I felt like Saint Paul, from Christian scriptures, when he was knocked off his horse.

In college, my faith underwent an incredible transformation to one that became personal and joyous, and based on a loving God. After leaving my Catholic faith because some of its beliefs no longer resonated, I basically forgot about faith. Radleigh’s words rekindled an old flame. Like him, I have had signs and messages from my divine teachers. Approaching faith like Radleigh brought me full circle, back to something so precious, and one that I can tap into when I face challenges.  This morning, in fact, during meditation, Archangel Sandalphon gave me a wonderful phrase – grounded in faith – that helps me feel grounded, knowing that due to faith, my divine teachers are right beside me enabling me to release my worries.

If your beliefs have undergone changes, but you feel a little uncertain about your new direction, reimagine your faith to one based on the support and signs you’ve already received from God and your divine help.

Two gifts for me; and I hope two gifts for you too.

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Transforming mental blocks

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This week I attended an online workshop called “The Mindset Detox” given by Liz Dawn, of Celebrate Your Life, and Emily Manning. It centered on addressing one mindset block, that is a part of you that protected or served you in the past, but no longer does. I focused on my self-doubt of my healing gifts. I want to share two exercises that had a profound impact.

Transforming blocks

The first was about inquiry into the block. To start, we were asked to connect with our core self, that I call our divine self. This is the grounded and wise self that’s connected to the divine. Then, we were asked to imagine that that block had a physical form and is sitting or standing next to you. Next, we were asked to have a conversation, asking him what was going on in order to understand its role in my life. The goal was not to eliminate this part but uncover the gift it provided (that is how it protected), and ultimately tease out how it could serve today and thus integrate into my core self. As a result of the exercise, I realized that my self-doubt was simply trying to keep me safe, thus initiating for me a process of transformation.

The other exercise was focused on thoughts, feelings, and actions. We were asked to write the thoughts that arise from the block, the resultant feelings, and the associated actions taken. Then, we were asked to write their counter-parts, the thoughts, feelings, and actions coming out of this transformed “block” that would now serve. Finally, we were asked to visualize ourselves in a situation where this block might previously have been triggered, but, as a result of its transformation, results in a positive experience. Liz went on to explain that doing this exercise for at least 21-days creates new neural pathways in the brain to support this change. She also explained that it may also occur subtly, whereupon one day you might notice that you are responding differently.

The workshop was an amazing experience and I am so grateful to Liz and Emily for offering it. At the end, they mentioned that they are offering a more intensive 28-day workshop, called “The Mindset Makeover,” starting May 15. If you are interested, here’s a link to the Celebrate Your Life website that provides more details: The Mindset Makeover.

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Can’t see the forest for the trees

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You can’t see the forest for the trees.

Have you ever felt so focused on project details or tasks that you forgot about the higher-level intent for them? In 1546, John Heywood documented the metaphor, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” That metaphor jumped out at me this morning as a result of messages I received from my spirit guides and angels.

As I’ve written before, I both am a spirit healer and becoming one. In the last few months, I’ve been taking a course on becoming an angel guide and a seminar on developing my spiritual gifts. But one thing I’d forgotten over those months is that I’ve been mostly functioning at the detail level and had not taken much time to step back from the tasks and view things from a higher perspective.

For the last twenty-some years, working in the documentation department of software companies, the software’s complexity required that I carefully document the details. However, when I became a manager, I was also responsible for translating company strategies so that writers could apply them to their daily work. So, I had to view my work from both the detail level and the higher level. By the end of my time with the company, I was able to balance them.

Now, as most of my time is dedicated to my calling, I was reminded today that I was imbalanced again. I was focusing on the details, in this case, the courses and my writing. The message to me was to step back to a higher view (the forest view from the metaphor), and simply attend to being connected to the divine realm, really feeling it moment by moment. That requires that I trust that my guides and angels let me know when the details need attending.

Looking at your own life, are you balanced between the details and a higher view? This could be about your work, but also your relationships, your finances, and even your own calling. Sometimes, taking the time to step back from the details and reflect gives you a chance to determine if your current direction and choices are in line with how you want to live.

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