Finally Downloaded Those Caroline Myss Pix

The exchange happened so fast & I was not at a good angle. Sorry to miss your face, Susan!

On the plus side, your hair looks FABULOUS!

I gave Caroline Virtual Massage & Healing Labyrinth Path CD's.

Cool bike sculpture at the Convention Center:

Whenever I go to a seminar, it's the whole experience of it. The people I'm with, the Indian restaurant we go to for lunch. And then! The awesomeness that is Caroline Myss. Her new book is Defying Gravity. She has a webinar on Thursday that will give you a taste. You can click here for more info.

There was a question from the audience about getting an alcoholic spouse to stop drinking. Caroline said, "You have to be willing to be hated." How brave are you? It doesn't have to be drinking, it could be anything. Are you willing to be hated? Or will you stay in the land of mediocrity and dissatisfaction? Something to ponder.

Deva Premal

I was at Brother Atlasta's house watching Battlestar Galactica with him & SIL. We used to watch the cheesy version in the 70's; the new one is much more high tech. As the program started, Atlasta said something like, "That music is so . . . it's not even real words!"

And then. THEN! I started singing along. It was one of those moments of serendipity and surprise. He looked at me like I had 2 heads. "How do you know this? I thought you said you never saw the show."

"It's Sanskrit," I replied. [It's so easy when you speak the language.] "It's the Gayatri Mantra. I learned it from my friends at The Shirdi Sai Baba Temple." Now I have to say, it's so rare that I know something that Mensa Boy doesn't, that it's hard not to be a big sister & GLOAT. Hahahaha

So this is all a preamble to say that tonight, I'm going with my friend Susan, to see Deva Premal; one of my favourite singers. When Susan & I were in Sedona a few years ago, we had the against-all-odds opportunity to see her in concert. I'm ready for another night of Light, Love, & Spirit! NAMASTE, :-) H.

A theme . . .

Two cards came in the post on the same day.

From my dear Yoga friend Rosemary. :-)

From Dearest Robbie

Coincidence? 2 cards from 2 friends with quotes both by Emerson. COOL! And then to continue the theme, I attended a Spirit School seminar led by my friend & mentor, Christen McCormack. The theme was "Recreating Your Life." I'll take some of that!

Christen says that so many of us have been brought up with a belief that life is supposed to be hard; that it's supposed to be a struggle:

We come to this life to learn and grow and our souls WANT us to enjoy it. Make the choice for happiness.

During our lunch break, I went for a walk with:

Susan finds a walking spiral on the property!

Standing by the maypole. :-)

We chose one area to focus on: career, health, home, etc. Here's the thing: when you work on one of those areas, the pleasant feelings of accomplishment tend to bubble into other areas of your life . . . what will you do differently today to recreate your life for tomorrow?

CSFT Seminar

I took a seminar with GSF Bess in Cerebral Spinal Fluid Technique this past weekend. You can read about it here. I had taken it a few years ago before I became a massage therapist. It was an easier class to take this time because there was a more hands-on approach & less information to have to assimilate. However, while I can appreciate this work, I see it through my Brimhall Goggles and it seems s-l-o-w and tedious. Lots of steps involved and I just think I prefer percussors & lasers. I'm sure practitioners who are proficient at it get miracles, just as all healing modalities produce their own miracles. I don't think it's a technique that I want to devote time to mastering. As always, it's not just the class you're taking, but the whole experience of it. It was a pretty awesome weekend, but I'm waiting to write anything else until I can upload some photos to go along with the narrative. I was back in my old stomping grounds of Shepherdstown, WV. One of my favourite places. I was able to get a visit in with my dear Miss Ruthie. She makes my heart SMILE. And I'll end with a BIG THANK YOU to Susan for her kind hospitality.

VITALITY

Yesterday I attended the quarterly Spirit School gathering. Christen McCormack, the founder, has been a friend & mentor to me for 20 years. She was one of my original Reiki Masters, and much of the healing work that I do has come from her wise teachings. Also at the gathering was another friend/mentor, Susan Wiesniewski. Yesterday's theme was Vitality:

What gives you energy? What depletes you? What is life-enhancing to one person can be depleting to another. It all depends. It's about tuning in to yourself and paying attention. So this is the exercise we did:

• On one side of the paper, list all the things that enhance your vitality: situations, activities, people. (e.g. laughter, great conversations, learning new things, naps)
  
• On the other side, list all the things that deplete you.
  
• Put a star beside the ones you do everyday.
• Circle the ones you'd like to add to your daily routine on the Vitality side.
• Create an action plan. (e.g. daily exercise, listen to more music, dance)
  

What gives you more vitality, enthusiasm, juice in your life?
DO THAT.

Day of Rest

Susan in her Cretan/Classical labyrinth.

I'm providing a day-of-rest for other people as I head out wearing my massage therapist's hat. Today is extra-special because it's Susan's birthday. Happy Birthday to my 7-of-Clubs friend! Have a LOVEly day! :-)H.

Invocations of Grace

I drifted off last night after Susan's Invocations of Grace teleconference. It was a really wonderful experience; deeply relaxing, healing, and restorative. Actually, I was drifting in & out of consciousness through the meditation part. It was just what I needed to integrate my experiences reading Eckhart Tolle--that whole "awakening" thing...sometimes I just want to sleep.

One of the things that Susan talked about was acknowledgement. We were to pick an issue or intention to think about as she guided us through the meditation. She said that if there was any part resisting, just to acknowledge it. Sometimes that's all you need to help to shift a pattern. Acknowledgement works with parts of ourselves that we deny or resist. What you resist, persists. I think it also works with people. When you take a pause and give your full attention and are completely present, it transcends personality, ego, or behaviour. It acknowledges the divinity within where we are all the same. Anyway, just a thought. Namaste.

Invocations of Grace

My friend Susan is mentor, teacher, healer, wise woman. I'm v. excited that she is doing a teleconference series called "Invocations of Grace." I missed the first one, but the next one is tomorrow night, 9 p.m. EST. I'll be there. :-) H.

INTUIT: DO IT

I was on my way to Hagerstown for the John Morgan Seminars when John called me and told me that he’d received an email from some woman claiming to be psychic. His name had magically appeared in her meditation that morning. He said, “So she’s coming to the seminar and I told her she could talk to you.”

I knew it was her when she approached the registration table—not a smoker, not a candidate for weightloss. Beyond that, she had that…glow. She’d been to a past-life regressionist two months ago and it opened a floodgate of intuition for her. It’s kind of like being given some gadget and not getting the instruction manual. Or wanting a gentle rain and getting a hurricane. Or being on dial-up and...well, you get the idea.

She drove two hours to get there expecting to see John. [Yeah, I know. If she’s that psychic, wouldn’t she know he wasn’t there?] She said, “I don’t know why I’m here. His name came to me in my meditation, I’d never heard of him, I had to look him up on the internet.” I’m standing there looking at her. Beyond her earnest searching, there is a core presence of Light. We all have it, some of us just shine more brightly. I said, “I know why you’re here. To meet me. But really, not me, because I’m going to introduce you to my friend Alaria.”

Alaria was sitting on a couch a few feet away. She’s a fellow hypnobirther, Reiki Master and Ericksonian student of Doug O’Brien’s. She’s also going through Spirit School, founded by Christen McCormack, a dear friend and mentor in intuitive healing. I’ve never been through the program, but have known Christen for 20 years. Psychic Girl needs some support, some guidance, some tools.

So I introduced her to Alaria and they happily talked while I went back to the registration table. My work here is done. Another mentor in healing arts for me has been Susan Wisniewski—who coincidentally teaches for Spirit School and is starting another set of classes tomorrow. Susan has a phrase that she’s used for years:

INTUIT: DO IT.

She even made bumper stickers. It means follow your intuition. No matter if other people might think you’re a nutjob. You might not get a WHY until you do it. Do it anyway. When we put a prayer out into the universe, we can’t define how something is going to manifest in our lives. We can’t place limitations or perameters on how it shows up. Her prayer of I need help was answered. But what a labyrinth she went through to get there, huh?

Just as I was finishing up this post, I heard, "Turn around." I did and looked out the window to see this GLORIOUS sunrise. Thank you, Spirit. I'm a big fan of sunrises and one of my favourite things when I lived on the Chesapeake Bay was to watch the sun rise on the water. I miss that. Here in the valley, sunrises are different. And the sun doesn't actually appear over the mountain until after 8 a.m. But I am getting some beautiful colours, for which I'm v. grateful. Have a beautiful day.

Massage Collage

I'm a journal kinda gal. I use a basic spiral blank art pad so that I can draw, write, take notes, record quotes. On the cover of each journal, I do a collage or put a picture from a magazine that I like. Sometimes I do it at the end of the journal or before I begin. It just depends. It's a great medium when traveling: just get an Oprah magazine & scissors & go at it. I always travel with glue sticks, doesn't everyone? ;-)

Creating a collage is like a labyrinth: it's directed by your intention. I've done collages for goals and collages for inspiration. This one is my Sedona journal, an AMAZING trip I took with my friend Susan (who has an Oct. post about our trip). Sedona is such a *magical* place. Our whole trip was so inspired; we spent the week with Chloe Wordsworth at a Holographic (Resonance) Repatterning conference AND Bruce Lipton kicked it off with his Biology of Belief seminar. AWESOME! We just by chance got tickets to a sold-out concert by Deva Premal AND we took a day trip to the Grand Canyon. If you've never been to the Grand Canyon, it's a must-see before you die. And I think Bell Rock is one of my favourite places in the world--AWESOME!


This next collage was done 3 years ago and was the answer to my prayer What now? I was asking for guidance about renting space at a spa to do Reiki, education consulting, etc. At the time, I had interpreted it as a "yes," but didn't follow through. Something didn't feel right about it. Less than a year later I went to massage school. One of those wonderful life-decisions that changes you forever. Sometimes we receive guidance and misinterpret it, but somehow we get to where we're going!

So now it's collage time again. Every December I do a collage for the cover of my planner and set an intention for the year. Ah...what's in store for 2008?

Birthday Painting

This is for my friend Susan who turned 50 yesterday. I've not done anything like this before. It measures 2 X 2 ft. It was inspired by a visit to one of my new favourite places, Wye River Designs, a crafts studio. Candy, the owner and artist, inpspired me with one her paintings which was v. collagey-scrapbooky. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Susan. I was going to call and say, "Sorry I can't make it to your surprise party," but thought better of it. ;-)