In celebration of the exciting and powerful eclipses we’re experiencing this month, I’ve decided to return to my blog, after hibernating for some time. My 6 week old son, Seren, sits next to me, chirping and singing and kicking. He’s reclining in his “calming vibrations” chair, and I’m thinking, we could all use a calming vibrations chair! Eclipses offer us a powerful opportunity for healing. With these eclipses, however, there is no refusing the offer; change is happening. Deep, lasting, positive change. And the rumblings can be felt at our very core.

For me, the healing is taking place especially on the family level. My “home space”, both my physical home and family space, and my connection to our eternal, true Home and Christ family, is being deeply cleansed. Old and hidden patterns of projection, blame and denial are surfacing and unveiling. The mind is rumbling with release, as Light and Truth penetrate deeper through illusions. Where I have withheld love from my partner, family, my Self, I am seeing the fear and pain of this withholding and returning, through forgiveness, to the wholeness of Self, Love and Unity. Where I have fallen into complacency, apathy or neglect, this Eclipse time is serving as a jolting reminder to wake up again. Don’t fall asleep. Remember your diligence and vigilance for Spirit!

What I like about the eclipses is that they can be experienced as a gentle influx of powerful energy. Although many experience their intensity with difficulty and major disruption, joyous and miraculous transformation is also possible. Our attitude and response to the healing energy represented by the eclipses makes our experience what it is. We can respond with enthusiasm and experience happy surprises and blissful blessings. Or we can respond with ignoring/ignorance and experience fear and stuckness. We can respond with gratitude and experience wonderful miracles and deep Love. Or we can respond with resistance and experience pain and frustration. Fortunately, the choice is ours. That’s what Free Will is all about: our power to accept what is, and choose Spirit, or reject/resist what is, and deny God. One restores the Peace that Is to our awareness, the other separates us, in our experience, from the Joy that Is eternally. In other words, the healing of the eclipse doesn’t have to come through in intense waves that knowck us over and fill us with anxiety. We can sit in our own calming vibrations chair by remembering to respond with gratitude and enthusiasm, like a child receiving a great gift.

During the past year, since the eclipses of last August, my home family has grown in number from two to four. Love has grown rapidly in my life, not only in the family that surrounds me and gives me daily opportunities to love, forgive, grow and heal, but also in my relationship with Self, with the family that we all are in Christ, in Oneness. I am reminded during these eclipses to be more aware of my ever-present connection to All, and to see Christ in everyone. My immediate family, those I see and relate with daily, often represent the most hidden places within that I have failed to Love. Gratefully, I have been eclipsed! Veils that hid the light of awareness from areas where love was withheld are opening, and Love is more fully present, between us and within us.

May you, like a child, sit in a chair of calming vibrations, like the hand of God, surrounded and filled with the Love of the Christ family. May the fullness and Joy of Love enter each dark corner of your mind and your being, and restore your awareness and experience of the Wholeness and Peace that you are.

“Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh, o’er the fields we go…Laughing all the way! HaHa HA!!!”

Jingle Bells is one of my favorite Christmas songs, full of mirth and cheer. I love the energy of Joy and celebration that the holidays inspire. And this song has one of my favorite lines, reminding me to laugh all along the way! There’s another mirthful song I love for its great lyrics and happy energy. It’s actually a nursery rhyme, but a very profound one, really: “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream!”

Aaah, if only we could remember to Laugh all the way through life, as we dash over the landscape of our collective dream! Isn’t it great that we have timeless nursery rhymes and holiday songs with profound little messages in them, reminding us of what’s really important in life?!

This morning a variety of Christmas songs danced through my mind as I took a walk in the sunny cool morning. I was delighted to be aware of the various hidden gems in these songs. My favorite, of course, was the Jingle Bells song, because finding my amusement has been even more important to me lately than ever before. Amusement is our ability to be mirthfully entertained by anything. Notice I stress the word anything, because the amusement I speak of, as an ability we have, is not conditional. Our ability to be amused is not limited by what it is that we appear to be amused by. This is because amusement comes from the inside. When we are amused, we are at cause, not effect. It is not what we are experiencing that makes us amused, but who we are that inspires great amusement no matter what the circumstances.

The importance of amusement is even greater when the circumstances seem to call for anything but laughter and enjoyment. For example, lately I’ve been experiencing a good deal of physical discomfort (hmmm , I’ll announce the reason for this later, in case you don’t already know Throughout this ongoing experience of uncomfortableness, I’ve reminded myself, as often as possible, to be amused. When I can become aware of my experience and witness it, rather than identifying with it and losing myself in it, I can choose to be amused, to witness myself in the great divine comedy and give my experience space to complete. In that awareness, and amusement, there is great relief, because when we are truly amused, we are identifying with Who we really are, rather than what we are experiencing. And, it is only our identification with our experience that causes any suffering.

Give it a try! Practice this with something that appears to cause you suffering, “unavoidable” suffering. Decide to be aware. Witness yourself having whatever experience you are having: simply notice, take curious interest in what you are experiencing, as if you are in a movie and you are watching yourself in this movie. “Hmmm, isn’t that interesting,” you say to yourself, “I’m feeling tremendous fear and panic right now…How curious…” This may seem silly, but really, just notice, become aware, of what you are experiencing. This awareness is who/what you are, not the experience, or the body experiencing it. Then, with that awareness, let it be. Let whatever you are experiencing be. Don’t fight it, try to change it or fix, solve it or figure it out. Don’t resist it in any way (ah…this may be tricky Just say to yourself “I can have this. I can let this be, because I know that it’s not really me, and that it will pass if I give it space to.” Allowing and accepting is not saying, “Oh yeah, I want more of this, bring on the pain.” It’s really saying, “I see you pain, I know you’re just the product of my resistance, so I’m going to give you space to be, and watch you disappear.”

Go ahead, try it. It’s simple, not always easy, but simple. We tend to immediately resist pain, naturally, because it’s not something we’d like to experience. But pain is actually the product of resistance deep withing our Being. So resisting it only makes it worse. Allowing it actually undoes it, releases it.

How can we possibly not resist the experience of pain? By having amusement, of course! Remember amusement. It’s not dependent on what you are experiencing. Amusement is a great and important ability that will free you from experiences that seem to bind you. When you are amused, you have your power: you have not given your power over to your experience. You are amused because you recognize that you made the whole thing up in the first place! There is nothing outside of you effecting you. You are it. You are the cause, your experience is the effect. So, remember to laugh! Be gentle with yourself. You are powerful!

“Into eternity where all is One there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not (ie forgot!) to laugh.” (A Course in Miracles)

“So, what do you do?” That question is almost always the first question we are asked upon meeting someone new. I still have trouble answering that question at times because what I do is not something that I do. The short answer to this question is: “I’m a healer.” I usually don’t leave the answer at that, of course, because that leaves a big fat question mark in the mind of my new acquaintance. I can just hear them saying to themselves, “Oh, right….so, what do you do?”

A healer can do many things; It is their being, however, that makes them a healer. And this being can be expressed in many ways. At times, I express my healing in the form of spiritual life readings which coach, guide, awaken and inspire people to find, follow and further their spiritual path. I help awaken people to Who they truly are, why they are here, and what they are here to do. I support you in finding your answers, following your heart, hearing and seeing Spirit, and finding unconditional peace and joy in your life and all of its relationships.

So, what I do is part of who I am, but the healing I offer is not limited to private sessions. Healing is a way of being, a way of seeing the world. It is not something you do. It is something you be, something you choose, something you are. Fortunately for the world, there are many healers incarnated at this time. Most likely, if you are reading this, you are a healer.

A healer is someone who is naturally compassionate, forgiving and accepting. Someone who gives people space to be, who offers acceptance rather than judgement. A healer is always seeking to return to wholeness: whether they are aware of it or not, they know that what is true is whole, and their very presence helps restore that wholeness. Healers are also amused: they don’t take life, others or themselves too seriously. Their light-hearted presence lifts us up and helps us let go of the stress of seriousness. Healers are on their return trip home (ie their return to the awareness of perfect wholeness, oneness, “Heaven” or union with God), and they guide and assist us all in this internal process.

Healers are often called “old souls.” They’ve been around the block many times, so to speak. They’ve had the whole spectrum of human experience over many lifetimes, and are now ready to wrap things up and complete the cycle of birth and death. For this reason, healers are also very sensitive/psychic people. They tend to feel everyone’s emotions, hear everyone’s thoughts, and see more deeply into people than they may be comfortable with or conscious of. If a healer is not guided or understood as a young child, their abilities and sensitivities often become confusing and challenging. If they learn, or remember, to see their sensitivities and abilities as strengths, then they are able to guide themselves and others out of the maze of illusion, and return to their true state of wholeness.

A healer is a gift. If you are a healer, or suspect that you are, or maybe don’t think you are but really you are the world is blessed to have you here. A healer is anyone who practices forgiveness, because they know that forgiveness is our only true purpose in this world. When we forgive the dream, we awaken from it, and we realize that all that remains is Love.

May you always remember that healing is forgiving, and forgiving is healing.

Thank you for Being!

I received a message this morning from an old grade-school girlfriend I haven’t seen or connected with in…15 years maybe.  Wow!  As we exchanged messages, I watched hundreds of “pictures” (scenes from the past) cross my awareness.  How interesting to review all the memories from that time in my life!  It brought tears of joy to recall the fun, playful years of girlhood with my friend.

What I noticed most as I watched the memories surface was how many different dramatic changes in perception and identity I’ve been through in the past 20 years.  For those on a path of transformation, rapid and frequent shifts in how we see ourselves, “others” and the world become quite common, until one reaches the inner-most sanctum of true Identity.  When we reach the place within where all is One, where we are the Self that lives in each seemingly separate individual, we come to truly know ourSelves.  Until then, in and throughout the process of transformation and awakening, there are epochs or waves of identifying with this or that role, ability, personality trait or relationship.  We may create our identity around our job, our primary relationship, our most useful talent or ability; yet as these roles, jobs or relationships change, so does that identity we held onto.  During times of great change, many experience an “identity crisis,” and are required to really look at who they are.  If they are ready, their awareness will reveal the Truth: the unchanging Self that remains unaltered behind the veils of the identities created out of the various appearances that come and go in the world.

This is the practice of detachment, or non-attachment, that so many Eastern traditions teach.  It is not a resistance to, or an avoidance of, any of the appearances, roles or identities we take on in the world.  It is simply an awareness, throughout any roles or appearances we wear, of Who and What we truly are, and an identifying always with the eternal unchanging Self, rather than any of the transient aspects of our roles, relationships, talents and experiences.  Non-attachment allows us to Be while we are being a parent, a student, a lover, a lawyer, a teacher, a doctor, an upset person or a challenged person.  We can Be no matter what our being is experiencing.

What we come to realize as we know the Self, is that identity creates, or determines, perception.  And, likewise, perception reflects our identity: who or what we think we are.   Any identity build around the idea of a separate self results in perceptions of separateness.  In fact, perception is separateness, for there needs to be more than one in order to “perceive”: the perceiver and the perceived.  When we identify with our Identity–our True Self, the One Self that Is–we are simply Aware.  We are Awareness aware of the various perceptions or appearances that come and go in the mind filled with thoughts of “what if we could be separate?”  (Fortunately we can’t

When we perceive pain or suffering of any kind, we have identified with separateness and the cascade of beliefs (or thoughts) that follow: fear, guilt, confusion, shame, resistance, anger, etc.  When we become aware, we know that these perceptions are simply that: perceptions, appearances that come and go.  We can then give them space and allow them to be.  We can step back, so to speak, with our awareness, observe them from the space of Love: Acceptance, Forgiveness and Peace.  We then find that the appearances/perceptions shift again.  Eventually, the more space we allow, the more peace emerges in our experience, until all that remains is Love.

Jesus said:  “Identify with Love, and you are safe.  Identify with Love, and you are home.  Identify with Love, and find your Self.”

May we all seek until we find this Self.  May we all remember to identify only with Love, and thus set the world free.

There’s a very simple analogy I like to use when I describe the nature of reality and this world to people.  Let’s go on a little journey together for a moment shall we?  I’ll share this analogy with you in the form of a brief visualization.  Of course, since you’ll be reading these words, you need not close your eyes to visualize.  Simply see the images in your mind as you read these words, and allow your awareness to open up and receive the messages meant for you at this time.

You’re at a movie theatre.  A grand complex with many shows of all varieties available to choose from. You’ve just bought tickets to see a fantastic drama-action-thriller-romantic-comedy-mystery movie called “My Life in the World”   You enter the theatre, the kind with stadium seating and cushy reclining chairs, and you take your seat right in the center.  You sink comfortable into your seat as the movie begins.

Within just a few moments, your awareness is completely immersed in this movie.  The theatre you’re in is a distant memory:  you are completely identified with the people, events and circumstances occurring in this most dramatic film you are watching.  You feel the emotions and relate intimately to the experiences of the characters: the fear, longing, despair, loneliness, sorrow, excitement, thrill, passion, pleasure, guilt, jealousy, anger, hatred, wanting, elation…  It’s a roller coaster of feelings and sensations and reactions.

As your awareness becomes more and more intoxicated by “My Life in the World,”  you catch yourself now and then thinking to yourself, “Oh yeah, it’s just a movie…” Sometimes this is disappointing, because the character you were identified with the most just got what she/he wanted.  And at other times you’re relieved, because tragedy struck, and it would be horribly devastating if that had actually happened.   Nevertheless, the excitement of drama is overwhelmingly appealing, and again, your awareness immerses in the movie, and you identify with the characters and events.

At one point, during the most intense experience in the action, when the fear, devastation and loss is overwhelming your senses, you take a deep breath and again notice that you are watching a movie, and that you are unharmed by the events you are watching.  You breath a sigh of relief and smile inside.

Now, let’s look around this theatre a bit more and notice how it works.   There are many instances in the movie that you really wanted to change the circumstances:  this person needs to do this, have this, go there, meet that person, feel better, look better, do better, act different, be different.   We know that, in order to change something we’re watching in the movie, we wouldn’t march up to the screen and try to rearrange the picture.  It doesn’t work that way.  We know that, in order to change the movie we see on the screen, we have to change the film: the pictures in the projector at the back of the movie theatre that are being projected onto the screen.   Ah, but we would have to be the film-maker, director and producer in order to do that right?

I’m sure you’re following the analogy, and realize that, in your life in the world, you are the film-maker, director and producer.  Your will and thoughts determine what pictures go into the film.  But what is it that makes those pictures project onto the screen/create the life you experience?  Well, again, it’s You!  The light that shines through the film that projects the pictures onto the screen is Who you are.  You are the Light.  In Truth, God is the Light and you are the extension, the shining emanation, of the Light.   God’s will, as the only producer, director and film-maker of Reality, is perfect peace, perfect stillness, perfect serenity, joy and wholeness.  When your will is God’s will, you have a great movie!  It’s a happy, peaceful, gentle movie for sure!

As you align yourself more with Who you are, the pictures in the film that were made from a will opposed to God’s naturally fall away.  They disappear.   And all that remains is the bright Light.  In the process, as old pictures (ie choices and thoughts) fall away, you may experience their chaos.  However, You will be untouched by the passing pictures when you identify with the Light shining through them.  Identify with the Truth, the Light of God, and all else falls away.  See the Light beyond the form, and all that remains is Love.