FEBRUARY 2004
Camping in my own backyard; the deva kingdom & plant fairies;
ghost tours & photographing spirit orbs; a lesson in money and 'daily bread'

Hello and welcome to the February 2004 issue of Horizons Magazine. I'm loving the
chilly weather we're having, although the wind twice almost sent my tent sailing as I
was camping in my woods. I've been outside transplanting dozens of loquat babies
that come up under the umbrella of the giant tree in my backyard. I've been planting
 them everywhere I'd like a privacy fence, since they seem to grow so fast. The birds
 love them and have daily feasts on the fruit in season. I love having a yard that is inviting to wildlife and I see squirrels, raccoons, possums, birds and butterflies every day, as well as lizards, bats at sunset, friendly snakes and the occasional deer or fox. There's even a big iguana living wild out here, and a turtle or two.

I love being outside close to nature, even if it's just camping in my own woods. I can pitch the tent so I can see nothing but trees and it's easy to pretend I'm in the middle of a deep woods. All day I can watch the lizards and birds and squirrels scamper around, and at night, the crickets begin and I can hear the nightly parade of critters making their way to the ponds and back. Often a cat or three will join me, stationing themselves strategically to oversee nocturnal comings and goings.

I might spend a couple of days camping out, meditating, reflecting, journalling, doing yoga, gardening. Routines like this help bring me back to center. Plus there's nothing like gardening by the full moon at midnight in the summer! The more time I spend in nature, the more intuitive I become, the more I notice the synchronicities going on around me and the more I am stimulated to creative thought. I begin feeling playful (well, ok, that's my natural state of being) and I begin wanting to express myself in some way. Sometimes I want to sing or draw or paint, sometimes I just want my body to move, to be in motion.

Especially while gardening am I aware of the elemental/deva kingdom and realize its connection to our emotional well being. Interacting with the deva kingdom (consciously or unconsciously) is very nurturing and soothing to the emotions. It gives us a sense of feeling secure, feeling on firm ground, feeling 1st and 2nd chakra safe.

From A Treatise on Cosmic Fire by Alice A. Bailey, 'the green devas act as the protectors of the vegetable plant life, and of the sacred spots of the earth; in their work lies the safety of man's body, for from the vegetable kingdom comes the nourishment of that body. The fairies of plant life, the elves, the radiant little beings who inhabit the woods and the fields, the elementals who work with the fruits, vegetables, and with all that leads to the covering of the earth's surface with verdure. Associated with them are the lesser devas of magnetization, those attached to sacred spots, to talismans and to stones
Interacting with the deva kingdom' gives us an awareness of our own inner strength and abilities, and cheers us on with every wave of a branch and flick of a fuzzy tail. It gives us another lens through which we can see our daily life; it gives us another viewpoint.

I love hearing about inner city kids - street kids, kids in danger and often dangerous kids - going wilderness camping and being made to call upon personal resources of strength and ingenuity to get through a couple of days alone. Some kids learn to make a fire for the first time (without throwing a match into a trash can) and some learn to scale rock walls and kayak. Some learn how important it is to be able to depend on a partner during a tough climb, or when your raft overturns in a turbulent river. These are eye opening, life changing events to these kids, because it changes how they view their world, it changes what they thought was possible. It opens an entire new world up for exploration and discovery, and seldom are they content to go back to their old life. Now they're jazzed to experience more.

I had a profound experience a few years back at my place in North Carolina. In the foothills of the Smokey Mountains, I had 3 acres of my own, surrounded by 20+ acres of pines and hardwoods. It was totally secluded and private and I spent many long hours up on my bluff, wandering along the perimeter of the clearing, which was kind of an elemental labyrinth. As I walked the bluff every day, I'd notice all sorts of plants and flowers I was unfamiliar with. As I began to examine them closely, I became very aware of the playful presence of the plant devas, the plant fairies, and had much interaction which I journalled about, and sketched.

I realized in quick order that one of their jobs is to help us lighten up and relax. When we lighten up and relax, we let more light in and our vision clears. It's amazing the world we see when our visions clears! And to think that we're in the midst of this beautiful, supportive world all the time and, for the most part, don't see it. Hesse said, Paradise doesn't make itself known as Paradise until we've been kicked out of it. That doesn't have to be the case. We can take time to connect with Nature and give our own vision a chance to clear, today, right now.

Speaking of vision, we've had lots of sightings on our Haunted Hotel and Ghost Tours, and have recorded lots of images. One of the best series of photos I got was during the last tour. Barbara Dobson of Spirited Adventures and I always share a room, and we'd just turned lights out at 2:00am when I sensed presence over her bed. I told her I was going to take some pics with my digital camera. I took 10 of them within a minute or two, and was excited to see bright orbs of light being recorded. As we began interacting by speaking to them and asking them to show themselves, more and more appeared and they began to change from the small, bright white orbs into larger, prismatic bubbles of light.  Often the orbs were in focus in the foreground, and the background (Barbara in her bed) was out of focus - those images are wild!

I had another great money lesson last month! Doncha? just love when that happens? In December, I began taking stock of my upcoming end of year bills and, due to a variety of factors (including losing homestead exemption on a property I co-owned with a relative who passed, and refinancing my mortgage without including the property taxes in the monthly payment), I had about $3,000 extra in property taxes coming due, as well as ALL my insurance due *hehe* bad planning, huh?

So, instantly forgetting all I've learned about vibrational resonance, I began to curtail spending, cancelled the housekeeper for a month, unscheduled a short vacation, and began to wonder where it would come from in time. I fretted over this - off and on, a few minutes several times a day - for about 2 weeks. During those two weeks, I was also getting the January Horizons distributed, and a friend (Devara Thunderbeat www.thundervisionrecords.com) was staying with me during her Florida tour of sound healing workshops to promote her new cd (Mayan Landing). So I hadn't yet taken time to really address the excess $3,000 due the end of the month. I vaguely thought I could pay it with a credit card if I had to, or pull money out of an investment, but the thought hadn't gotten any further than that.

When I finally took the time to SIT DOWN AND GIVE THOUGHT to the topic, I did so in my typical ritual fashion:

1. I opened my windows and straightened the office up, to get the energy moving.

2. I lit a candle and set my intention to give thought to my finances with the goal of being guided in what steps I needed to take in order to get everything paid on time.

3. I lit a stick of incense and put it in my Ganesha incense holder; Ganesh is elephant faced in Hindu art and is known as the Remover Of All Obstacles. Every little bit helps.

4. I smudged the office with sweet grass.

5. I closed my windows because now I was freezing; it was 4am and 42 degrees outside.

6. I sat and asked for guidance. I said a few prayers then listened for the still, small voice, which I knew from experience would come disguised as my own thoughts coming to mind.

I thought of what I knew to be true; what I could count on.
Stop laughing.

First and foremost, I knew that one way or another, it always gets done. "It" being whatever I need, by whatever time I need it by, it gets done. I may not know five minutes ahead of time where it's gonna come from; but it gets done. So I knew I could count on a minimum of $__ to come in for Horizons Magazine during the next 30 days, and I knew I could count on a minimum of $__ of Andrea income. I like the security of knowing I have a certain amount coming in regularly each month, something I can count on. And Horizons wasn't designed to make a profit, so it pays for itself but doesn't produce income; I make my living coaching and counselling, ghostwriting and voiceover.

What else did I know? I knew that I have investments which I like to pretend I don't have so I'm not tempted to go into them too soon and pay Uncle Sam his hefty penalty. A-ha! I suddenly remembered I had a checkbook for a money market account that until last year, I used to automatically deposit into. I searched and found it, and I found I had $1,100 available to be used! Yay! Then I checked the Andrea account and had $700 in there, $500 of which was an unexpected, recently repaid personal loan, that I didn't expect to see for years! Yay, again! Until this point, I was thinking only of immediately figuring how to get $1,800 to pay the one property tax bill, but when I saw how easily I was able to come up with that, I decided I may as well pay the entire $3,000 all at the same time.

I became silent again and thought, what else did I know? I knew that I had-? technically - the rest of the money in the Horizons checking account. That was being saved for the printing and mailing of the February issue. But, technically, I had the money. Give me this day my daily bread. Hmmm? The bread was on the table. All I had to do was reach out and take it. What was stopping me? The idea that today I get my daily bread, but maybe tomorrow God won't be able to come up with it? Or that I won't be able to attract it into my experience tomorrow? What about faith? What about, ask and it shall be given? What about what I preach to others, then secretly go through doubt myself about? (Oops, in case you've put me up on a pedestal, forget that last line *hehe*)

I wrote out the checks and mailed them all out. As I walked them to the mailbox, at 5am in flannel plaid pjs and lionhead slippers, I felt a real relief come over me. As if I'd just made the exact, perfect, right decision! I tend to feel that way a lot. I've been very lucky in that I have the time and circumstance to live stress-free, with plenty of leisure time to meditate and contemplate what I want out of life, and tune in to guidance, and the freedom to follow it. That's my fervent wish for everyone I know as well. I do believe that I will be given, every day, all that I need to complete that day. That I will be given, every moment, everything I'll need to carry me successfuly into the next moment. Enjoy our offering this month. Hari Om.

Horizons Magazine

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Photo from 2004