Inspired

What’s up?

taken with my phone camera

Besides the patio umbrella?  I’ve been on the run for the past week and computerless for the last few days but all is right with my world now…the computer is back, rebooted and working better than ever.  I’ve started a new painting that has me revved up and impatient to get on with it but lots of summer socializing has meant I’m just looking at it in passing right now.  Which is OK, because I’m coming up with new ideas about where I want to take it while I’m just looking.  I’m also planning on painting an interior wall…a smallish one in the front hallway and wrapping just a bit into the living room, so the place is littered with paint chips at the moment.  I’m leaning to a bluey/turquoise, a bit like the background on my blog but slightly lighter. Am I bold enough for this?  Hey, it’s just paint (she tells herself)!

I’m running on I know, but I’ve had three cups of java power today and I don’t normally have more than one...maybe that’s why I’m not sleeping!  I’ve also had a few days of birthday celebrations (mine) which have been lovely (thanks to all for your birthday wishes on Facebook!) and spent several hours today playing with a grandson who: loves to paint, search the rocks for clinging starfish and play endless games of hide and seek.

Thanks for stopping by my lovely friends and now…I’m off to bed and sleep.

Solstice

Yesterday was the 2nd annual Solstice celebration at a friends boathouse just down the street.  You couldn’t get any closer to the water without being in a boat.

 

We ate sumptuously and still the sunlight lingered.

 

At 9:30, the sun finally slipped behind the mountains,

 

and we were joined by a heron fishing for his own dinner.

 

As darkness closed in, we lit candles while setting our intentions for the next six months…

and released them to float away in the darkness of night.

A beautiful, beautiful solstice gathering once again at the boathouse.

 

Thoughts...

single peony – Butchart Gardens, June/2011

 

You are asked to place all of your wants and needs upon an invisible future.  The invisible will manifest in accordance with how deeply, how powerfully you believe in it.

It is like baking an invisible cake from a cake mix box that has no directions on it, putting it into an oven that is invisible and turning on a timer that does not exist.

There is great frustration, as you feel all alone in your creations.  Each of you holds your personal “vision in invisibility.”

Every great person that has existed on this earth has held the vision in a place of invisibility.  First they imagined it, and then they loved it until the invisible became seeable.

It came into manifestation through the hearts, the yearnings and the desires of those that called it into existence.

 

as received through Gillian McBeth-Louthen

It’s a busy month…digging aroung in the dirt and planting…my father visiting…travelling to celebrate a birthday…and as always, lots of inner work to birth and create ‘the invisible future’ of my ‘yearnings and desires”.  

I’m  really just jumping in here today to say hello and to let you know that truly, I hold you all close to my heart...a sudden loss makes one deeply aware of how much is taken forgranted.

Saying Farewell...

 

Charlane K. Griffith

July 17, 1957 - June 6, 2011

 

I just found out.  Today. 

I’m still trying to take it in.

For those of you who knew Char, her writing…her photography...

you’ll know what I mean.

Char was always open. 

She didn’t hide her fears and insecurities…

she was honest like that.

She always had an encouraging word...or two or ten...

and took the time to scatter them around the internet

like the petals of the beautiful flowers she loved to photograph.

Char brought so many of us together

(and called it, appropriately…Lens Us Together)

I was fortunate to be gathered into that fold

and though most of us never met her “in person”,

she has friends all over the world

who hold her next to their heart.

Someone like Char is to be cherished.

Always.

 

Thank you for all you’ve given us Char…

You will be so dearly missed.

 

(On June 6th…the day Charlane died, although I didn't know that then…I came upstairs to find this rainbow shining on my wall…it was stunningly bright and beautiful.  In Buddhism there is the concept of the "rainbow body", which is considered to be the penultimate transitional state in which matter begins to be transformed into pure light.  It seemed appropriate to post it in memory of her. 

 Last Valentines day, I directed my readers to her blog to read a beautiful love letter that she had written to herself.  It touched me deeply then…and now, well now it leaves me feeling beyond words with it’s wisdom.)

Focusing

This photo was taken at the Butchart Gardens yesterday, June 11, 2011

The lotus flower grows in muddy water and rises up and out of the mud

to bloom with remarkable beauty.

In Eastern philosophies, the lotus symbolizes purity of heart and mind, 

spiritual awakening and detachment, as drops of water slide easily off its petals.

 

I haven’t posted "a message from spirit" for some time now.  I’ve done many writings for myself but none that felt quite right to share here.  Many  people are going through some very major life shifts right now and it’s a time of great change for many. Perhaps some of you are finding yourself challenged to make changes, either within or out in your experience of the world.

 

Dearest ones, we would like to speak to you this day about focus. When we say focus, what we are speaking of is the importance of focusing your thoughts, your actions, your life really, on yourself. This is not to say that  you cannot focus on loving and caring for your family or that you cannot go about your daily life and focus on what that entails, rather what we are speaking of is that it is so important now for you to focus on what your own thoughts are, what your own feelings are and what your own actions will be, rather than about what others are thinking, feeling and doing. Make your focus about YOU.

When you focus on others, you skilfully divert yourself from your own “work” but to do this is simply a distraction. If you are thinking of...and judging...others, you aren’t able to focus on yourself, but dear ones you no longer have the luxury of this diversion. Every thought that runs through your head now is calling forth more of the same. Are these thoughts of love and joy?  Be constantly aware of what you are creating and call these wayward thoughts back to you. Use the alchemy of your mind to transform them.

...what is within you that you do not want to look at and beckons you to continually distract yourself from doing so?

...what is within you that you judge yourself for, but instead find it is easier to look at others and judge?

Reel your thoughts back in now and make them work for you. Your work is within. You are all travellers on the same road but travelling on a different schedule...some of you are walking steadily forward while others are taking side paths and stopping here and there to “experience” life through the filter of drama. Do not judge someone else’s journey, for it’s all simply experience. When each of you decides to end drama in your life, that means dropping not only your own, but everyone else’s as well.

Dearest ones, it comes back to focus...focus on yourself. Pointing fingers outwardly is simply a temporary escape from focusing within. The ego is very clever in it’s distractions, but always...again and again...bring it back, bring it back. This focus requires the discipline and strength of the warrior energy...that of the spiritual warrior.

And we ask you to remember dear ones that you are not alone, you are never alone. We walk this journey with you. We are always with you and your own guided ones long to assist you...you need but ask.

Shera

Thank you all for stopping by…I’m so glad you do.  I hope this weekend was one of rest and renewal…but if it wasn’t, I hope you had fun!

365 Grateful

This week…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope your weekend was fulfilling in all ways.

 

Retreat

I’ve been quiet recently…a good thing.  I’m “on retreat” so to speak, at home. While Mr. I has been travelling in the UK, I’ve been taking the time to be quiet, to be on my own and to go within.

Although I’m missing him, he’s taking important time to reconnect with family…especially the grandchildren.  A cottage in Devon is hosting the clan and I would love to be there too but I’m also enjoying this time with no schedule, sleeping in, reading, walking, taking photographs, being creative and just letting the days flow.  It’s a gift in it’s own way.   Spending all this time with myself may have it’s drawback though, as I was brunching with a friend the other day, I realized I was  talking non-stop.  She was barely able to get a word in edgewise!

 

 lemon balm

The weather is still dull and drizzly here on the west coast…but warming slowly.  Any ambition I might have had doesn’t get very far with the greyness of the skies although I did go out yesterday and struggled with layed out  almost 400 ft of soaker hoses in the front garden (we don’t have a lawn…just shrubs, grasses and flowers on three, tiered levels).  Hoses certainly have a mind of their own…they wanted to go one way, when I wanted them to go another.  Who won?  Me and a dozen bricks to hold them all down!

 

lemon balm, spearmint and lavender

The lemon balm in the photograph was given to me by a friend who lives just down the road.  As I was leaving her place (after having dinner in her boat house which hangs out over the water…sigh)…I admired her huge planting of lemon balm.  She picks it and crushes it in a mug of hot water for “tea”...it smells fresh and lovely.  The spearmint is from a pot on my patio and the lavender is some of what we put in the front garden last year.  We planted at least 15 lavender plants of different varieties and this one with the "rabbit ears" is Spanish lavender…the first to bloom.  It’s a very dark purple so it doesn’t show up well in a photograph. (The bees are loving it!)

 

 Spanish Lavender

On a completely different note, did you know we’re in the eclipse season?  As someone who’s interested in astronomy and astrology, the energies coming in this month have once again intensified. 

For the next (month) the Universal energies will gift us with much needed help and support as we experience the power of three eclipses in a row, and the Summer/Winter Solstice.   This process opens with the Gemini Solar Eclipse on June the 1st and concludes with the Cancer Solar Eclipse on July the 1st.  These three Eclipses signify opportunities that shall enable us to awaken to an expanded vision of our individual reality and truth.

As this Eclipse season commences your subconscious beliefs, negative programming and patterns will come to the fore to be healed, transformed and released.  It is vital that you are open and honest with yourself so that you can identify where these patterns, programs and beliefs create unnecessary challenge, struggle, pain and limitation.  The power and energy of the next six weeks will support and guide this process ultimately bringing forgiveness, compassion and self-love.  You will be released from the shackles of self-judgment, limitation and separation birthing the freedom you require to live your essential self.

Kate Spreckly

Speaking of releasing old patterns, I’ve had several people ask me about the EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) process that I’ve been working with for the past several months.  Rather than write about it here in a post, I’ve set up a separate page for information and resources and it's available over on the right hand side.  I’ve found it to be an effective tool for releasing beliefs and patterns that are holding you back from creating the life you want.  Have a look if you're interested.  I''ve included a few links to some videos as well...check out Rwanda - Project Light where young survivors of genocide in Rwanda are using EFT...it's so worth watching. 

If anyone has recently sent an email to me via the address on my contact page and I haven’t replied, I’m having difficulty accessing that address.  I’m still working on it but may ultimately have to change it.  Thanks to everyone for stopping by.  I love our connections and wish you all a beautiful June…no matter what the weather is doing where you are!  Blessings dear friends,