The past several months I’ve been seriously catching up on my sleep. The beauty of a sleeping disorder is when the pendulum swings, the insomnia disappears, and I sleep many times throughout a 24 hour period. Sleep changes everything! When insomnia hits, it can last for months and years, but I’m used to it so I take natural herbal sleep supplements when it does –> those links here. I’ve been having vivid dreams since I’m getting plenty of REM sleep. It’s a fascinating meditation: deciphering my own dreams throughout the day to find the personal meaning and correlation. I’m always on the lookout for the personal spiritual lesson in everything. Yes, it’s all about me. More dreams = more contemplation = more insights = more the creative juices flow. I wrote how –> my new art studio was inspiring me, so I’ve been in there playing with the acrylics. It’s easy to get lost in painting, the time flies and it’s a mental vacation getting to paint until I’m tired, then nap and get up and paint again. Continue reading
Author Archives: Andrea
Remedy for a universal condition: Begin living the expanded life as soon as you choose to direct your own thoughts
A friend writes, “Where do I belong? Where do I fit in? Something big is about to happen and I can feel it. I’m being pulled, but to where? I tire of living….no wait. I don’t live. I’m tired of existing. I feel so indifferent towards everything as if in the end it won’t matter anyhow. We all have to die someday. Why bother doing or learning anything if we’re just going to die and the information gathered will fade away into nothingness? I don’t know. I just don’t understand and all I want is to go home so I can search the cosmos for my lost love.” Continue reading
How do you know if they love you or just love the lifestyle you provide them?
I just did a reading for a woman who “got dumped for another woman.” She actually “got dumped” after she told her boyfriend he couldn’t use her car anymore and he had to pay rent if he was going to keep living at her place. Seems it was easier for him to change girlfriends than to change lifestyles. Stop doing these things and you will attract those who love you for you and can do for themselves, I promise you. How do you know if they love you or just love the lifestyle you provide them? Stop providing them with anything but your love and attention, that’s how. If you have to bribe someone to be with you, that’s not love. Many people go to any length to have someone in their life. The one time I did for someone with the intention of giving them the respite they said they never had, I disabled them to the point that they resented me and the friendship was lost. Lesson learned! Let the caterpillar make its own way out of the cocoon or its wings won’t be strong enough to fly.
Hard as it is, get used to death. God would not stop an acorn from growing into an oak, nor a tadpole from becoming a frog
Another beautiful soul has dropped their Earth body. A friend remarked, “This is happening too often, this has to stop.” Really? It’s not going to stop, everyone drops their body, it’s part of life. Why is death deemed tragic and why would God allow it to happen? It’s not tragic, it’s just the cycle of Life, so why should God prevent any of it? We’re all going to die. We simply need to know it’s nothing to fear and that it’s not the end. What a caterpillar calls death, we call a butterfly. Would He intervene to prevent the caterpillar from becoming a butterfly? Would he keep a tadpole from becoming a frog? Would he stop an acorn from growing into an oak? Would he prevent hot water from becoming steam, or cold water from freezing? These are just natural changes and it is no different than our own transition from one state of being to another. It’s just a change. Would we keep a toddler in kindergarden or a 6th grader in elementary school? No, we let them graduate to the next phase in the process, so they can continue to learn and grow and become more of what they are meant to be. That’s all death is: going from one form to another.
Grief is work but it doesn’t have to be grim. When you check out of your physical body, your work is able to take on a new dimension. Continue reading
Rest in Peace, Judith Martinson-Savage
Another beloved friend has made their transition. I met Judith in the early 90’s through longtime galpal Cecelia Danas. Cecelia writes: “With great sadness and a heavy heart I lost my friend, business partner and teacher Judith Martinson-Savage, LMHC died this morning. Judith and I worked together for 20 years. She loved being a counselor, especially helping people with addictions. She was always there for her clients. I know she is at peace now. Archway Counseling Center will continue for I know that’s what she wanted.”
Another friend, Suzanne Daly wrote: “Jude had the spirit of a Lioness!! Her body would not allow her to be fierce as she wanted to be all the time. She was constantly being derailed by the body that would not give her a break. She can now do her work and be strong and fierce and healthy and free and when the wind dies down I think I can hear her roar in the distance. Many will miss her and many have been changed forever because of her love and service. Love you Jude!!!”
Judith’s service is Thursday 10:00 am to noon at Beach Funeral Homes, 1689 South Patrick Drive Indian Harbor Beach, 32937 phone 321-777-4640.
RELATED: The end of death as we know it
Her perception upon dying
The new art studio is coming together
The inspiration is flowing! I’ve set up my painting studio in what used to be the dining room, and it’s coming together better than I planned. Don’t you love when that happens? Everything fits and, for the first time in years, my paints and sketchbooks are laid out where I can sit down and work on a moment’s notice. I always have several projects going at the same time, some related to the magazine, some related to writing and editing, and always a few personal projects, sewing and handyman stuff. Sometimes 15-30 minutes a day is all the time I can spend on something, so I am used to working in jumps and starts. Today I set up the watercolor station. I inherited my husband’s paint supplies in the 90’s. He painted in oils and watercolor. I was always an acrylic painter, so that opened new doors to me. He was a real neat freak, so his paint supplies were kept immaculate. It was good training for me to keep them clean and well cared for. As I set up the watercolor station today, I noticed I had a relatively new set of paints and a half dozen new, unopened brushes — score! I taped a few sheets of watercolor paper to pieces of cardboard and set them on the easels, ready to go. I laid out the brushes and paints, the mason jars I use for water, and several paint cloths to wipe brushes on. I’m already inspired!
Don’t complain about those you don’t vibe with, just unfriend them til you’re back in the vibe
Don’t complain when someone on Facebook actively supports a cause or a business or a person you wouldn’t support. Simply acknowledge that is where they’re vibing right now. If you don’t vibe there, and clearly you don’t if you’re making this much noise about it, simply unfollow their posts or unfriend them. Then focus on all that other cool stuff you let yourself be distracted from while you were being a pouty puss.
My former dining room is now the art studio
I decided to turn my former dining room into the art studio so I can keep my reading room intact. Yesterday I collected all my art supplies and put them in the center of the living room to see exactly what I had. There were drafting tables, oil paints, acrylics, brushes, palettes, knives, watercolors, watercolor paper, sketchbooks, canvas and stretcher sticks, desk easels, standing easels, pochade boxes, pencils, erasers, pastels soft, hard and oil, solvents. I thought if I had enough to take over a room, it made sense to have a dedicated paint studio. If I leave up paintings in progress, I’m more likely to take a few moments and work on them. Otherwise years can go by with them untouched because they’re packed neatly away in the closet. As I meditated on the idea of room placement, I reasoned that the dining area is the best place in the house to be. It’s near the sink and water, it’s got the best indoor and outdoor lighting, it’s in the middle of the action, so the chi is constantly flowing.
Looking for God everywhere is a spiritual practice
Gandhi said “If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further.” It’s not always easy, but that’s why they call it spiritual “practice.”
And this is why they pay me the big bucks
I did –> a reading <– for a friend 2 months ago, where she asked about moving into a particular gated community. She’d made an offer on the only available home and wanted to know if her loan would be approved. A perfect example of asking a short-sighted question. I told her while I saw her being turned down for this particular loan, there was another unit in the same community about to come on the market, and it was more suitable for her as well. That one would be approved. The question: “Will yesterday’s loan application be approved?” was shortsighted. The better question would have been “Will I live in this community? Will I buy my dream home in this community?” She texted me this week, after I asked for an update on the new home: “Like you had said… one was about to go on the market but had not been listed yet. When I called the realtor who had listed one of the rentals in the community, she offered to show it to me and I said I would buy it. It played out just like you had visioned. I am living here in a pre-occupancy agreement until I close in August.”