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 →

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!

RELATED: 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.

Continue reading →

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.”

Stephen Gaskin 1972 Summertown TN

Ina May Gaskin doesn’t describe her husband’s death as a loss. “Sometimes when you check out of your physical body, your work takes on a new dimension.”

Family celebrates life of commune founder, counterculture icon
L.A. Times Stephen Gaskin dies at 79; founder of The Farm commune
NY Times  Stephen Gaskin, Hippie Who Founded Enduring Commune, Dies
ABC News Stephen Gaskin Dies

The end of death as we know it

“The money isn’t in the bank yet, and when I look at the money that isn’t in the bank yet – that I want and need – I feel negative emotion, and the negative emotion is because I’m looking in the wrong place. I’m looking in the bank, instead of into the vibrational reality.”  If you’ll look in the vibrational reality where it is, now you’ll resonate with the Source within you. You’ll feel wonderful and, when you feel wonderful, that’s the condition that is necessary for the thoughts to turn to things. But if you are conditionally-based, running around sorting the things, acknowledging the things, measuring the things, comparing the things, noticing the things that you’ve got and the things that you don’t have, then you can’t move beyond the existing conditions. You can’t move beyond what-is, if what-is is all you got going on in your vibration.      Continue reading →

With past partners, she ended up having to row the boat on her own. She knows it will be different this time.

A friend is marrying the latest love of her life.  They’re having a commitment ceremony without the legal confines – the best of both worlds – since her latest is still married.  The heart connection is what matters, though, not the legal status.  She doesn’t care to legally share in his marital debt anyway. A piece of paper doesn’t keep someone with you; love does, and trust.  She doesn’t know his past history in honoring commitments, but knows it must be a vibrational match to her own.  The questions she is starting to wonder about now are: How did his past relationships end?  What is his relationship with his family, with his wife, his children, his parents, his brothers and sisters? What is his relationship with his employer? His past employers? With his friends?  If it’s a commitment ceremony, she’d like to know he has a history of doing what he says he’ll do.  Continue reading →

It’s not easy to turn your attention away from what is bringing you down, but you have to do it if you want peace. No matter what it is, it is only a thought you are dealing with, and you are the one in charge of those. Sure, troublesome thoughts arise, but we can train ourselves to change our focus to a better feeling thought and bring ourselves out of a funk.   A friend wrote he can’t get out of his mind that he somehow caused a loved one to die tragically.  It’s not easy when the troublesome thought is about someone you love, especially if you feel responsible. I lovingly reminded him: “One way to stop triggering the pain is to stop repeating the story on a weekly basis. I know it’s not easy to break the habit, since talking about it keeps her alive in your consciousness. But telling the story keeps you in the pain. By repeating the story, you put yourself into a trance and the pain body is addicted to the emotional charge of telling the story. There are new stories to be told, new things every day to appreciate. It’s crucial for mental health to seek out and focus on good things in the now. They are there waiting for you to notice them.“

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The End of Death As We Know It: What The Crossing Over Experience Was Like As Reported By Those Who Made The Transition

Important to remember that no astral being can survive and hold place in your consciousness without your attention to it. If you have no emotional attachment to it, it will leave your experience. That is because the astral plane is where our emotions live. If we let unwelcome astral thoughtforms hold center stage in our awareness, it puts us on a hamster wheel of nonproductive discontent. Being unfulfilled and dissatisfied is one of the hardest nightmares to awaken from. Nothing has taken over your mind and your thoughts. It’s simply that you’ve chosen to allow yourself to keep thinking every thought that comes in your head. Steer your thoughts in another direction. Make the choice to change your focus to a better feeling thought and do it every time the unpleasant thoughts come up. Soon enough they will stop coming up and you’ll be living a different life.

RELATED:  The Tipping Table Knows
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The End of Death As We Know It: What The Crossing Over Experience Was Like As Reported By Those Who Made The Transition

Last night about 8pm, after lots of lightning, the power went out. It was off for about 10 minutes when we drove a block away to the bf’s house to turn off his computer so it didn’t run down the battery. On the way, we ran over a downed power line stretched across the road. I called it in to 911 and we watched as emergency crews responded. I didn’t want to deplete my phone, otherwise I’d have live reported it on Facebook as it happened. A fire truck responded within 10 minutes, and four patrol cars within another 10. It had stopped raining by the time the two FPL trucks arrived 20 minutes after that. At 8:45 pm the sun was setting and they had the big giant search lights playing on the tall Australian pine trees, where a downed branch had torn down the line. Continue reading →