Ready or not…..

Love this! *

Appreciating my life,  just as it is right now, and also being ready for openings, ideas and events that present themselves as opportunities for more Life, is how I want to live this one life that I’ve been given. I want to get up every day and say, “I am ready. I may not be where I ultimately want to be, and I certainly have more than a few personal flaws, but I am ready for Life. Take me as I am!”

When you’re trying to motivate yourself, appreciate the fact that you’re even thinking about making a change. And as you move forward, allow yourself to be good enough.  Alice Domar

* thanks Judith for sending this to me!

Read Full Post »

Solutions

Eleanor in the garden

The other day someone was talking about a 3-legged dog that he had recently adopted, and who seemed to be doing really well, but as this man spoke about his dog’s background and the bad situation that she came from, he kept saying, “The poor thing” over and over. I finally said, “Consider for a moment how you would feel if someone was thinking, every time they looked at you, ‘That poor thing. He really isn’t doing well!’” Or even imagine  looking in the mirror and having those thoughts about yourself. Most of us would (energetically) recoil from that kind of thought. It doesn’t feel good to us because it isn’t high-energy thinking. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, really does apply here with the slight change of: ”Think about others, as you would like them to think about you.”

Coincidentally (of course I don’t believe in coincidence!) a few days before I ran into this man, Jack and I had seen a woman in Middlebury, VT walking a 3-legged dog. At first I thought the dog was limping, and I am embarrassed to admit that my reflex thought was, “Doesn’t that owner know that her dog is hurt?” but as I watched them I saw that the dog was just trotting along (with a little jump in his/her step) with only 3 legs, and both dog and owner seemed like they were getting along just fine.

If we are looking at someone (animal, person, or situation) as heartbreaking or hopeless, then that is all we tend to see, and we have become (without meaning to) a part of the problem.  Also, we could be missing the Truth or a higher level solution which doesn’t present itself to us because our thinking is too low. Problems are only thoughts and they have an energetic charge just like solutions do. The higher and clearer our minds become, the faster and easier high-level ideas and solutions present themselves.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. Albert Einstein

NEW SESSION OPTION

Over the past year, a number of people have asked me if I’d consider doing shorter phone sessions and so, starting September 1st, I am going to be offering, (in addition to the full one hour regular sessions) shorter, 30 minute appointment times. The fee will be $35 for the 1/2 hr. time (the regular session will stay at $60).

If this is something that interests you, you can go to the “My Work: Private Sessions with Me” tab,  read more about my background and what a session with me is like, and if you’d like to set up a time, email me and we’ll go from there!  The link to this page is: http://www.whitefeatherfarm.wordpress.com/about

Read Full Post »

The real reason for my trip

Daisy…sitting in my backseat, waiting to be picked up by her owner.

I took a quick trip to Manchester yesterday. I needed to pick something up, and get a watch battery replaced for Jack. About a mile from the center of downtown Manchester, I noticed what looked like a dog running along the side of the road. I slowed down, and at that moment, she ran into the middle of traffic. Cars were weaving around her so I pulled over and got out of my car to try to slow things down. As I began to approach her, she ran back to the side of the road, in the opposite direction. Hurrying to my car, yet uncertain about how to proceed, I realized that she was again in the center of the road, still running away from me.

I quickly began walking toward her, and heard someone yell, “Mary!” I looked up and my friend Ashley Bridge (a massage therapist who shares the office building with me) had also seen the dog and pulled over. Cambridge is at least 45 minutes from Manchester yet we were both there at that moment. Now the little dog was between us and we were able to grab her.

We called the phone number on her collar, and her very-relieved owner said that she had been on a hike with her dogs when Daisy wandered off, and she’d been looking for her ever since. Daisy is an old dog (I believe her owner said that she was 15) and seemed a little confused but oh so sweet. It was a happy reunion.

I never did get what I went to Manchester for, (the item wasn’t in and the jeweler was out of that type of battery) but it didn’t matter. I realized that the reason I made that trip had nothing to do my original idea.

Do we really ever have to question that we are all somehow connected at the level of the “heart”…connected by Love!? Right before I left for Manchester, I had stopped by the Coop to have a brief chat with my friend Nancy, and used the bathroom before I headed out. As I stood there in the bathroom, a poster (that I had never noticed) caught my eye. The title of it was, “How to Build Community”, and I don’t know why, but I took the time to read it. I liked the poster, but the suggestion that stood out was, “Help a lost dog.”

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.  Blaise Pascal

(Information on how to purchase this poster is in the following link    http://syracuseculturalworkers.com/poster-how-build-community

Read Full Post »

Dipped in God

A friend sent this photograph last evening and I just loved it!

I used to go to bed at night, letting my mind wander all over the place until I finally fell into a restless, fitful sleep. In those days, I always woke up still feeling tired. Sleep was necessary, but not refreshing or renewing. The more I began to focus my mind, especially right before I fell asleep, on good thoughts, the better I felt in the morning. Then I started to notice that important thoughts; new ideas and solutions to issues that I had been wrestling with, were almost being “presented” to me while I slept.

It’s odd that this part of us, the need for sleep, is looked upon by so many as a necessary evil. If we can’t figure out why we need the amount of sleep that seems to be right for us individually, then we somehow label it a weakness. I’ve heard people say with pride that they only needed 4 hours of sleep a night. As if the more hours we stay awake and alert, the better we are.

Something very important happens during sleep…some connection that is vital to our well-being in a way that is beyond scientific, rational explanation. But to reap the benefits, we need to drop the worries and concerns of the day and turn our selves over to the great healing and renewing power that is waiting for us, just below our conscious minds.

And if tonight my soul may find her peace in sleep, and sink in good oblivion, and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.  D. H Lawrence

Read Full Post »

an inventory; re-labeling my life

Noah and Luke

None of our cats have loved getting attention from Luke, but Noah has always been really afraid of him. Yesterday was different. I looked over and saw Luke licking Noah’s head, and my first reaction was to shoo him away, but as I waited a second, I realized that Noah was enjoying it. Something changed, something became easier between them and I was about to stop it because it didn’t fit the pattern that I was used to, even though that pattern wasn’t that great.

Negatively labeling people is such a bad habit. It tends to restrict their future behaviour, at least in my eyes,  to only what they have done in the past. It is like taking an expansive, multidimensional being and stuffing them into a little, neat box so I can make sense of their behaviour (even when I don’t like it!). They also tend to start showing me only that face, only the traits that fit the label, because that is what I expect.

It’s not the same with positive labels. Somehow even the words, “She is a lovely person”, she is kind, he is generous, he is open-minded…” feel different. I want to give to the world my best, and to call forth the best from others. Maybe this would be a good weekend to do an inventory; to look at all of the labels that I have stuck on people (me included), places, situations and animals, dust them off, and re-label them with words that hold high, positive and expansive energy.

“Once you label me you negate me“. Soren Kierkegaard

Read Full Post »

Dissolving the fear in our minds

Luke and his new toy

Luke is our big, long-haired German Shepherd. He is a goofy, loveable guy who makes the most of his life with 6 cats, none of whom want to play with him. He was born different…he didn’t even look like the other puppies in the litter, and by the time he was 6 weeks old, he couldn’t stand on his hind legs, but he was a sweet puppy both in looks and temperament. The breeder was a friend of ours, and offered him to us because he couldn’t be sold. We said yes. It was recommended that we get his hips x-rayed since hip problems can be an issue with shepherds. We didn’t do it.

I knew that if I heard from our vet that Luke had bad hips, I would never be able to get the image out of my mind, and what we imagine and fear, will start to manifest. We decided instead to accept him the way that he was, wiggly hips and all, and only do something medically if he was in pain, which he wasn’t. He will be 4 years old in May.

There is an idea, a belief system, operating in the world that we must prepare for disaster. That worry, fear, and massive amounts of information about every disease, disorder and disaster that could potentially befall us (or those that we love), will help avert those things from coming, and just the opposite is true. What we prepare for, we are making room for, in our lives.

Hyper-vigilance prevents us from being able to listen to the voice within, which is our greatest gift, our best friend. Whether you call that voice the “still small voice of God”, intuition, guidance, guardian angel or gut feeling, it really doesn’t matter, but what does matter is the knowing inside that we can trust ourselves. That if we tune into that “voice”, for direction, we will be guided toward the correct action, toward the lives that we want, instead of the lives that we fear. The Spirit never scares us into action. When I am in-tune with my inner guidance, and I do need to take action about some thing that could end up being a problem, I get a “nudge” that might feel like an unusual thought, and if I don’t listen, it gets more persistent (and this is a good thing), but it doesn’t lead by fear.

“The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds“. William James

Read Full Post »

Surprise

“

a treat for Luke

I like to treat myself at this time of year. One thing that I particularly like is Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, so I bought a pint of Cherry Garcia the other day, ate a bowl full (picked the chocolate and cherries out of the rest of the container) and then gave it to Luke. I figured that he could have a little treat over the next 3 nights. My plan was to let him lick the ice cream for 5 minutes, take it up and put it back in the freezer, and give it to him again the next night.

It seemed like a fun little plan to me. Last night, I went to get the carton out of the freezer and it was gone. Jack doesn’t like cherry anything, so I couldn’t figure out what happened to it until I asked him. He said, “I was having such an ice cream craving that I ate the Cherry Garcia, but it seemed strange, like it had been partially melted.”

Jack is a man who can laugh at himself. I love that about him….love that about people in general. We are supposed to be enjoying this trip called life. Maybe over the next few days, we can choose to laugh at something that in the past would have made us upset. The holidays give us lots of opportunities to practice this!

“God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh“. Voltaire

Read Full Post »

Changing the world, one smile at a time

We had Thanksgiving dinner with our good friends yesterday. We were welcomed with open-arms and hearts, and we could feel it. When someone truly wants to be doing what they are doing, everyone around them benefits. It radiates out like a beacon of love, with the power to change the world, one soft touch, smile, or hug, at a time.

Another friend sent me this video yesterday. A lot of times, when a video is more than a couple of minutes long, I don’t take the time to watch it. This one I did, and then this morning (it is 5:30 a.m. here in upstate NY) I watched it again. It is about 8 minutes long and I loved every minute of it. When Jack gets up and pours his cup of coffee, the first thing that I will do, is say, “Sit over here. You have to see this video.” It is about a man and his dog…. but so much more.

Read Full Post »

Holy…….Is anyone watching the road?!!

I took this photograph while Jack was driving and Luke had put his head up front. I didn’t see at the time, that Jack had his eyes closed. Jack is a “relaxed” driver. He looks around, fiddles with things (obviously he closes his eyes too, but I didn’t realize this until yesterday!). In the past, we’ve gotten into quite a few arguments over this (me trying to tell him how to drive). Yesterday, I had just come from an incredible massage, had a magical morning with a friend, and we were headed to Northshire bookstore to buy Christmas cards and coffee. I was feeling so mellow and happy that when I saw this shot (on my iphone), the look on Luke’s face cracked me up, like he was thinking, “Oh my god, she is taking pictures and he is sleeping! Who is watching the road?!”

“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.”  Henry Ward Beecher

Read Full Post »

curious

Eleanor and Noah playing

I have just about finished my cashmere blanket. The largest surface that I have to work on is the living room floor, so making this blanket has been interesting…I’ve had lost of help! I left a basket of scraps on the floor and when I came back into the room, the cats had knocked it over, pulled out the material, and it became a prop in their game. They are curious about the new material, the scissors, thread, sewing machine. I love living with animals….there is a mini-surprise around almost every corner.

It’s also interesting to watch my own mind and judgements about change and my environment. If Jack had been the one to knock over the basket and was then rearranging the contents, my first reaction would not have been delight! I rarely get angry or even irritated at animals. I don’t judge them or try to figure out their motives and my life with them is peaceful, fun and has an element of daily delight in it….hummmmm.

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity“. Eleanor Roosevelt

Read Full Post »