This week I learned something. I was going to stay quiet, but have very often heard after the fact “I wish someone had told me.” (However when someone told me, I didn’t listen.) A friend just began dating a woman who I know the past 20 years to be other than what she seems. A mutual friend told me “the news” and joked, “he must have just come into an inheritance.”  That triggered me.  She’s smart, pretty and charismatic, and as long as the dollars are flowing, all is well. She has overlapping relationships and at the first argument over “can you please pay your own bills,” her partners are left devastated, emotionally and financially. I stopped and asked for guidance, to be able to look at it in a way that respected everyone’s path and choices and helped me determine my responsibility, if any, to my friend.  I wasn’t judging his choice, Just wanting it to be an informed choice, like getting a Carfax before a pre-owned car purchase.  The heart wants what the heart wants, and there’s nothing like the shakti rush of new infatuation.   Plus his future experience doesn’t have to be the same as anyone else’s past experience. Continue reading →

Starting in 2016 we’re planning a regular psychic fair in Melbourne.  There will be angel messages, rune readings, crystal readings, astrology, tarot and more. If you’re interested in having a table for vending, email Andrea at horizonsmagazine@gmail.com. If you are interested in doing divination at the fair, email me and we’ll schedule time to have you give me a sample reading. It will be a brief 10 minutes on any topic other than my writing or relationship.  We’ll scout for locations beginning in January. If you have a possible location to suggest, email me.

I’ve been getting lots of sleep lately, a welcome change from the insomnia I often have. The plus side of insomnia is that I always have time for yoga, meditation, creative visualization, working out, projects and cleaning. I used to think I needed to be awake and working up to 18 hours a day in order to get it all done. When I get enough sleep, however, I’m much more productive. Then on those days when I’m napping for 14+ hours a day, I can whip through the work in just a few hours because I’m rested and able to focus and think clearly. It’s been a Starbucks and beach weekend. Yesterday we walked through the art festival in Cocoa Beach then hung out on the sand at the Boardwalk drinking caffe americano decafs with soy milk. I’m loving the feel of moving at a slower pace. At times it feels like I’m on a continual vacation. I still have as much work as I can handle, but when I stop obsessing over “I should work a little more,” I stop overbooking and find I have plenty of time for everything I want to do.   Continue reading →

You ever have one of those days when everything falls into place, conspiring to make you happy? I’m having one of those lifetimes.

I’ve begun de-cluttering my office. I do it every few months as the paperwork begins to pile up. I’ve never gotten the hang of the “pick up each piece of paper only once” rule. I’m always setting something aside to look at in a few days, a few weeks. I use a daily flip calendar and place notes to myself on the pages of future dates as reminders of projects to check progress on and requests to re-visit. This morning, I began clearing out of my office the items that no longer belonged in there. I moved to the back office all the the hypno cds and files, all the music and headphones and jacks. I rearranged the shipping and mailing station to give more room. I pulled out two boxes of papers to be viewed and filed or recycled. I swept the floor. I emptied the office recycle bin into the main bin on the driveway. When I stepped back in the office, it looked and felt much more expanded. I smudged with sage and incense and did a puja for the fresh space. I’ve learned in order to stay motivated, I need a fairly organized and clean space. The more cluttered, the less time I tend to spend in there. When I begin to feel stifled, I change it up and clear it out. Instant motivation!

Love should make you feel free, not like a prisoner.  You shouldn’t have to cut off good friends and family for your relationship,  Love should be pure, not toxic.  Make sure you know what you have.
Tony A. Gaskins, jr.

Prolonged use puts them at risk of stunted brain growth and a loss of self-control

How many hours a day do your kids play video games? Studies show that letting kids entertain themselves for hours with video games hinders their ability to learn and express emotion.  It puts them at risk of stunted brain growth and a loss of self-control. Research shows that the thought processes required by computer games are too simple to stimulate crucial areas of the brain, leading to underdevelopment and consequent behavioral problems. One study measured the brain activity of hundreds of teenagers while they played a Nintendo game and compared it to another group doing simple arithmetic. The results showed that, unlike the math exercise, the computer game did not stimulate the brain’s frontal lobe, an area which plays an important role in the repression of anti-social impulses and is associated with memory, learning and emotion.  A lack of stimulation in the frontal lobe before the age of 20 prevents the neurons from thickening and connecting, thus impairing the brain’s ability to control impulses.  A more highly stimulated and thus more developed brain is able to keep such urges under check.  Continue reading →

My favorite holidays are the ones where I don’t have to be anywhere.  Planning on a quiet Thanksgiving, it was the midnight before when I decided to clean the house.  I moved furniture around as I steam cleaned my floors.  I took a stool, 2 chairs and a small table to the shed. I disassembled YinYang’s “kitty city” which is a few sizes of cardboard boxes with doors and windows cut out, side by side in the living room. I moved the table out into the middle of the living room and set it for dinner.  Already the room looked larger and brighter.  I decided to chop vegetables in preparation for Thanksgiving dinner the next day, so I began with cleaning the kitchen and then washing all the cleaning cloths.    Continue reading →

Folks who get their legal knowledge from tv shows don’t understand the system is working as it should. I was a criminal defense paralegal for 22 years. If you know the actual law and break down the evidential timeline, it’s clear. Does overkill happen in far too many cases?? Sure.  But the grand jury does what it has to do under the circumstances with the evidence presented to them. Bless those who drive themselves crazy talking about what should have happened instead when they don’t have the facts nor the ability to comprehend the actual law.

A Gardener’s Thanksgiving
Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:
For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are;
For generous friends with hearts and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
For feisty friends as tart as apples;
For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we’ve had them;  Continue reading →