Who are you?

Better yet, who do you want to be?

I think as we enter 2011 there is no bigger question for each individual to answer. I believe we are gifted with something we are destined to do, to accomplish, during these turbulent times. You are very special, or you would not be here right now. You have something the world needs, and deep in your heart you know that. If you are not living your light, then 2011 is the time to start.

Start by asking yourself what makes you happy? What makes you feel full of energy and hope? What brings you a sense that time has stood still and you are in the midst of something greater than yourself?

For each person it is different. But you are unique and incredibly powerful. That is what 2011 is going to be about - finding your destiny through positive intention to do so. Living from the heart. When in doubt about how to act or respond to a challenge - ask yourself - what would love do? You will automatically be in the right frame of mind to make the right choice or decision. Living from the heart is what we are destined to do, and 2011 is the time to start.

A Grateful Year

As some of you may have known, my husband went two years without working. Like so many of you, we were not sure he would work again in this economy. Lucky for us a job came around. But during that time we learned a few things:

1. Take nothing in this world for granted, especially not jobs or income.
2. It is the little things in life that make it worthwhile.
3. People are what is important.
4. You don't need much money to be happy. Having enough is just fine.
5. Never owe anyone anything - ever again.
6. Less is best.
7. When you've got it - share it. 

This is not to say you shouldn't save for a rainy day. We should all try to be in a place where we can survive in a downturn, or be secure in retirement. But with that being said, one of the best lessons to come out of those two years was the recognition that money in the bank doesn't work for anyone. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and all of the other gazillionaires that are giving away their money realize that simple fact. Putting money out into the world changes things.

This year we are not exchanging gifts in my family, we are fortunate enough to be able to share an experience instead. We are very grateful to have our children and grandchild with us to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, and the beautiful whales of Hawaii.

So with that thought in mind, I thought I would share a few of my favorite opportunities to share this season:

Library in Nepal - Fellow blogger, goddessoftheconfluence, has a business that often takes her to Nepal. She has done wonderful things for the residents on more than one occasion, using her own money. She is now spearheading a library high in the mountains for the people of a small village. She has a wish list, breaking down all the components of the building and books. Volunteers from the community will build the building. It is a fascinating and worthwhile project.

Oceana - Oceana is on the beaches cleaning the turtles and other poor sea creatures created by the BP debacle in the Gulf. It is an ongoing project. Their organization is focused solely on ocean conservation. This year they are giving you the pleasure of actually adopting a whale, dolphin, penguin, polar bear and more.

Animal Ark - This is a local program. I have been on more than one school field trip to visit the wild animals that have been rescued from some really sad places and situations. They have bears, eagles, coyotes, all manner of animals lucky enough to be cared for at Animal Ark.

Elephant Nature Park - My daughter had the good fortune to be able to visit this elephant rescue park while in Thailand this year. I posted about it here. For a nominal fee you can adopt a specific elephant at the park. It is really amazing how little it costs to help one of these magnificent creatures.

My husband likes to give at the grocery store, and always buys extra bags of groceries they have made up for the food shelter. But it doesn't matter where you give, or even how much you give, it is the energy and intention that goes with it that changes the world.

So do you have a favorite this year?

Years of Study in a Nutshell

This series, The Science of Miracles by Gregg Braden takes complex material related to science and spirituality and puts it into an easy-to-understand format. Reiterating the importance of prayer and positive, peaceful, thoughts, this series has much to offer. There are seven parts, between five and ten minutes each. If you choose to watch some or all of it, please let me know what you think:



You can find part two here.

Today is the day at 7:00 p.m! 10 Billion Beats!

Today we need to get out our drums, pots and pans, plastic buckets, or whatever we have to drum on and join the world - drumming with intention! This is an intention experiment.

Please visit this site to understand what exactly the intention is about. And watch this video to understand what we are about:

Power of Prayer

There is some scientific proof that prayer really does work. To explain the physics of it would take too much time here, but there has been successful work done in the field of focused intention, such as prayer. Dr. William A. Tiller, of Stanford University, has pioneered work in using human intention to affect change in an array of substances. Through his work, and others like him, it is not too much of a stretch to take it a step further and consider that focused thought, such as prayer, may actually send an organizing principle and have an effect on the world. Here from Living the Field:

Crissie Blaze, co-author of Power Prayer suggests for "greatest effect say the prayer out loud, with all of your heartfelt feeling, hands raised, with palms facing outwards, and visualize energy streaming through you as a brilliant white stream of light. This is energy from "The Field" conditioned by your love and the intention of your prayer. By raising your hands, you allow spiritual energy to flow freely through your heart center and the psychic centers in the palms of each hand."

She says a secret to the success of prayer is to "give them everything that you have - your concentration, faith, love, reverence and focus - then detach and carry on with your everyday life. By detaching from the result, you hand it over to the magical power of the Absolute."

Here is her suggested prayer for peace, allowing you to pick what feels most comfortable in your worldview. Of course you may choose however you would like to direct the prayer.

Oh mighty God
I offer my heartfelt prayer in thankfulness to you
And ask that I might be a channel for your peace and love,
So that this may flow through me to all life,
To humanity, in all its diversity of race and creeds,
To plants, animals, and even rocks beneath our feet
So that we may know that we are One planetary family
Dwelling within Thy Great Heart.


Oh wondrous Parabrahma,
May your divine and infinite power flow now
At this very moment - in an everlasting stream of light
To bring peace and freedom to our world.


Oh, Eternal Creator, Provider and Sustainer of all Life
Great peace, Great peace, Great peace,
May Thy will be done.

I have a few to say today. Including a send off to Barry of An Explorers View of Life, who passed away yesterday. Rest in peace, dear Barry.

One for our dear little Lilly, who I have heard is back in the hospital. To say this breaks my heart, is an
understatement.

One for my Aunt Judy, who is very close to joining my mother, my grandmother, my grandfather, my uncles.

One to a husband of a dear blogging friend who is fighting a terrible disease and an insurance company that doesn't want to live up to its obligations.

One for a blogging friend in Amsterdam, living with MS, who just had a set back.

One for the cap to hold on the Gulf, and that health will return to the people, the water, and the animals so decimated by this disaster.

And one of the above, so that peace may come to our planet, and our young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan can come home.

The Coffee Table

It has taken me a month to get all my boxes put away after our move. Part of the problem is a husband who is working seven days a week and having to travel for his job over the last month. But things are settling down and there are finally pictures on the wall. But a very funny thing happened the other day, so I thought I would share. You may remember my post on how we came to this particular house, well it gets better:

I decided last week to hire some people to help us move the furniture from one bedroom to another. A task that was too much for my husband and myself. The doorbell rang and the man at the door looked perplexed. He asked me if the people who lived here before gave me their name. I said no. I had found them myself in the phonebook. He laughed and said they had just moved the previous people out of this house a few weeks ago. They knew the house well! Not only that, but it seems we have the exact same coffee table! What are the odds of that? They also had two other pieces that matched my coffee table, which we had not bought - but it was the exact same piece. It is large, with glass and leather around the edges. I guess I hadn't noticed it when we did a quick walk-through. I had noticed the piece that they had used to hold a television, which was the sofa table that matched my coffee table. Each room had window treatments that exactly matched the furniture I would put in that particular room - which I hadn't noticed when we decided to take this house.

It seems that when you open yourself up to synchronicity, through intention, all sorts of funny things can happen.

A Hopi Elder Speaks

A Hopi Elder Speaks

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered . . .
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader."
Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be a good time!"
"There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly.
"Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
"The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

-- attributed to an unnamed Hopi elder

Hopi Nation
Oraibi, Arizona

Difficult Childhoods

Lately I have been reading some blog posts that made me think about psychic energy and difficult childhoods. These particular bloggers, while humans searching for what matters along with the rest of us, also seem to be "tuned in" for a lack of a better phrase. Very sensitive to consciousness, energy, spirituality. Linda Pendelton did a post about psychic spies and remote viewing the other day. And one of the original participants in the CIA program, Joseph McMoneagle, commented that many of the psychic viewers were children of child abuse. Which of course makes sense. Children in dangerous situations need to use their instincts in order to survive, be it physically and/or mentally. These individuals, now grown, could be psychically "charged" in a way that makes them highly sensitive.

This sensitivity is good and bad for these individuals. The good is that they tune in first to all the changes going on in our world and often understand esoteric trains of thought very easily. The bad is that they are very sensitive to everything going on. They have fewer "filters." With the problems in the world, stresses at home and work, the tendency for depression and other anxiety disorders are more common.

Nde's, or near-death-experiences, often have participants returning to their bodies after resuscitation with stories of being told they have a mission to accomplish. That it wasn't their time, and no matter how hard their lives seem to be, they have not finished what they set out to do. Many return to lives spent passionately pursuing different lifestyles. Often seeing things very differently, than before the NDE.

Over the last several months I have watched some blogs go from the depths of despair, to people who seem to be much happier, and very connected to their lives in a fresh way. Much like the NDE experience, they are starting to lead very different lives. Their blogs are artistic, their voices sure and strong. They are talking about what excites them - and we are listening and following and learning in a synergistic manner.

So where am I going with this?

Well, I'm not sure. But I'm studying it. It may be what Trish MacGregor said in my comments section yesterday - we are a group of people who are meant to meet. The blogosphere is creating the venue. We are drawn to each other through intention. Whether to help each other through dark times, or to learn, or to be the first to celebrate good things that happen. To support each other. Maybe we are here to help each other "awaken" to a new way of seeing the world and all the characters in it. An NDE minus the dying part. Without all the pretense, without all the trappings of modern society, just us and the people we connect with.

What do you think?

Drawn by Intention?

I just started reading The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart. This is an amazing book. Suggested by more than one of you, it's clear that you are way ahead of me on this topic. Or is it that we are drawn to each other based on intention? Anyway...

I've already mentioned in an earlier post that I have one foot in science and one in spirit. This has always been the way for me. And this book brings science, especially quantum physics, and spirit together seamlessly. I've just started the book, but wanted to share one amazing experiment:

"Animals themselves proved capable of acts of effective intention. In one ingenious study by Rene' Peoc'h of the Foundation ODIER in Nantes, France, a robotic "mother hen," constructed from a movable random-event generator, was "imprinted" on a group of baby chicks soon after birth. The robot was placed outside the chicks' cage, where it moved around freely, as its path was tracked and recorded. Eventually, it was clear that the robot was moving toward the chicks two and a half times more often than it would ordinarily; the "inferred intention" of the chicks - their desire to be close to their mother - appeared to affect the robot, drawing it closer to the cage. Over eighty similar studies, in which a lighted candle was placed on a movable REG, baby chicks kept in the dark, finding the light comforting, managed to influence the robot to spend more time than normal in the vicinity of their cages."

This is fascinating! This means animals may have an ability to affect their world. If the chicks tiny brains can do this, can you imagine what ours can do? Luckily we have scientists all over the world working on consciousness and intention.

We know through quantum physics that at the subatomic level all matter is made of the same "stuff", from rocks to humans. What's more, they've discovered that subatomic matter appears to be involved in a continual exchange of information, causing it to change and refine.

So if animals can manipulate their world through intention, and they now think all things are connected - um, here's a thought - should we be eating them?

Just saying.

Resistance & Tolle

http://www.terragalleria.com/

I've been reading Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth" and one of the parts reminded me of childbirth. I had chosen to do the "Bradley Method" with my oldest daughter. Natural childbirth, with as little pain medication as possible. Not, by the way, a method that is for everyone. But something Tolle said brought back memories, and highlighted what I think he was trying to bring to light. And that is that the human mind is incredibly resilient, and strong. Once an understanding of how it works is illuminated, you can never go back.

The Bradley Method teaches you how to go into the pain, during childbirth. Using your mind to allow your body to do what it needs to do without resistance. And I can tell you - it works. I was able to literally control the pain by controlling my thoughts. Now if I was nudged out of my intense concentration, the pain would roll over me like a steam roller, thus I needed to stay fully invested in the work at hand.

Becoming aware of the ego, and how it uses emotion and thoughts to feed dysfunction, is the basis of Tolle's book. That incessant voice that is constantly being critical of self and others, creating whole scenarios of winners and losers, judging, manipulating, controlling, and competing to the point of making us miserable. These thoughts create our reality, drawing negativity and unhappiness to us.

So how does that relate to the Bradley Method?

By becoming aware of what my ego is doing, and learning to watch it from a distance, I can then become engaged in the process of awakening to the truth within. I begin to see how it is controlling and manipulating me. It is creating resistance to the work at hand, and that is to be mindful of how I respond to those inevitably painful and tricky situations that I will encounter in my life. Thereby not drawing more pain to myself through resistance and fear and unconscious responses. For what we resist, we strengthen. If I can do it in childbirth - it's possible to do in my life as well.

Dark Clouds

http://www.terragalleria.com/

I recently read a nasty comment left on someone's blog that was devastating enough that he decided to close his blog. And I really want to take a moment to talk about all the negativity in the world right now. I can feel the energy as if it were a breathing thing, over the last couple of days. I've been swatting at my own black cloud. But I also know that the only way to combat all of the "stuff" going on is to be positive. To stay grounded and centered. Realizing that when people put themselves out there, in a blog, they are sensitive to what we leave as a comment. That's not to say that leaving a differing opinion is not welcome, it is, at least on mine. But being mindful that many people are struggling with job loss, self-esteem issues, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burn out, illness, and a host of other problems. We are going through trying times. It is often what makes our writing so soulful and life affirming.

We have a responsibility to be aware of the impact we have on the world. It has been a lack of this type of awareness that has propelled us to where we are now. And the blog world has been a place where most people are supportive and friendly. A very positive place. A life-affirming place. A wonderful place. At least it has been for me.

I think it is certainly okay to not leave a comment if it might be hurtful. Especially one of a personal nature. Just move on. It is not our responsibility to set any one straight, offering up a nasty opinion. We simply do not know the effects of what that one comment might have on the person. Because we really don't know where that person is coming from, or what they have been through. We only know snippets of a life shared. And we are all a bit vulnerable right now. Don't you agree?

Personalize Your Space

I think we all need a place in our home that is ours to do as we please. Since downsizing, I have relearned the joy of small spaces. On my side of the bed I have created a little area that is all me. On my husband's side he has done the same. I think he is actually enjoying the activity. We both take our time, utilizing the shelves for additional space. I needed a place for my "jewels" (costume, of course), and he wanted to showcase that motorcycle all made out of wood that we found on our trip from Minnesota at Devil's Tower, in Wyoming. (Some of you may remember this from Close Encounters of a Third Kind, or in the Oregon Trail computer game.)

Anyway, on his side he likes his books mostly, but also that picture I found for him that reminded us of a heron doing exactly the same thing as this bird in a marshy area on the Oregon Coast. It was sunset, and it was so nice to sip our wine and watch this bird doing a little dining of his own. The reflection on the water was breathtaking.

He also likes the neat fossil our daughter gave him for Christmas. He uses it as a bookend. And the leather case for a pocket watch he inherited from his father. The watch doesn't work, but no matter.

I like plants, flowers, and candles, all things outlawed on his side.

I also like my little Buddha statue, and my robin picture that reminds me of the robin family we had the good fortune to follow last spring, right in front of one of our windows. I'll do a special post on that.

What about you? Do you have a little place that is all you?