Activation

I walked into my office this afternoon to find “Arthur,” my crystal writing muse, positively glowing.

This is an untouched photo of the afternoon sun hitting an angle I’ve never seen before. Good sign, eh?

Also a quick reminder that Wednesday’s the last day to sign up for February Specials: “Creative Jump-Start” and/or the “Reiki Master Teacher Certification Special.” I’ve certainly experienced a creative jump-start this month. The Metaphysics of Lyme Disease book continues to light up with a new structure, expert contributors, and 40,000 words added since February 1.

Wishing everyone creativity and radiant joy as we move into March with Thursday’s glowing Full Moon.

Forest Bathing, Indoor Garden and Writing Updates

Several people have inquired how my November writing month went, as well as how we’re enjoying David being in Kalamazoo full-time now. I thought I’d give some quick updates. We still love it here! Every week we find new local hiking spots of such beauty, and we haven’t even begun to explore the various forests one to three hours from here. So far, we just feel delighted to drive three to fifteen minutes to scenes like these:

Update on My Dad

Thank you to all of you who have sent continued prayers and energy healing for my father! Several people have recently asked for an update, so I’ll share what I can here. For those of you who want to add him to your own lists, his name is Steve Derbenwick.

My dad was really struggling before I wrote last week’s post requesting prayers and Reiki, but my parents both said they could sense all the prayers coming their way once he got re-upped on my mom’s prayer list and with all my amazing blog readers’ energies, prayers and intentions. Truly, thank you! We’re deeply blessed to have such a worldwide group of powerful healers, shamans, Reiki Practioners and Master Teachers, prayer warriors, love beings, and adepts sending energy to our family.

I did some shamanic Dreamwork with my dad on Friday, the 19th, and felt the situation shift even more, which my dad confirmed the following morning. He was still very weak but felt much more “here.” He also let me know that he had printed out my prayer request/tribute to him so that he could read it every day. He felt it would “strengthen him,” and he appreciated everyone’s loving comments. Just knowing that so many people he’s never even met care about him has really touched his heart.

According to my sister and mother, who actually see my dad on a regular basis, he’s still very, very weak. My brother and I have needed to become more involved in his care from a distance, as well, but I am grateful that my siblings and I work well together, honoring our own different gifts and strengths in order to help manage things as best as we can. Yesterday, my dad had a platelet infusion and a bone marrow scan, though he will not receive his results for another week.

The test and procedure yesterday left him exhausted, but we’re all hoping he will rally enough to give his previously scheduled prayer testimonial at several church services tonight and tomorrow. My dad credits prayer with bringing many, many miracles into his life since his cancer diagnosis, and he wants to share his stories to help inspire others to participate in a prayer week at my mom’s church. My post last week describes some of my dad’s transition from total skeptic to open-hearted mystic, but it doesn’t capture the depth of feeling he has for being able to give back to those who’ve helped him.  My mom and sister have arranged a wheelchair for him and reduced the number of times he’s scheduled to share his story.

Even so, getting him there and having his voice strong enough to carry through the microphone, and his energy steady enough to do his talks remains a huge challenge. Any energy you feel called to send to support this process would be greatly appreciated. I’ve read my dad’s speech, and even though I’ve heard his stories before, it always starts the tears of Grace flowing.My dad feels this is one of the most important tasks he has right now, so I hope for his sake and for his listeners that he can share his story. If you knew my dad, you would know what an incredibly healing and generous heart-opening his desire to share such private stories with hundreds of people really is!

David and I made arrangements in case we need to change our travel arrangements to arrive sooner than our scheduled date in March, but so far, the original timing still seems Divinely orchestrated. We’ve even got synchronous house-sitters lined up. Thank you again to everyone sending positive energy to our visit. We’ve got special events on either end of the visit, too, all of which seem significant to the larger journey of everyone involved.

I know many people are ill, struggling or transitioning right now. Sessions are filled with people dealing with various intensities and life changing events. Clients, friends and blog readers keep privately asking me how I’m doing, so I’ll share a little here. Overall, I’m doing well, though, of course, a range of emotions flow through me in any given moment. Gratitude remains my dominant feeling, since we have already had an extra 4.5 years with my dad beyond his original prognosis. We’ve all used that time well!

I’ve also had the opportunity to observe many families dealing with crises, which makes me acutely aware of how lucky I am to have capable, caring and involved siblings who share similar ideas about what needs to be done when. This process has strengthened our three-way communication, and having watched our dad shoulder so much responsibility with his own mother, we’re all mindful of distributing responsibilities as evenly as we can, given our varying proximities and skills.  Thank you for including my whole family in your prayers, energy and intentions, because as any caregiver knows, the supportive roles need support, too!

Fortunately, David’s family’s ongoing crises that we moved to Goshen to manage have begun to ease, which means he has more energy and needs less support from me right now. Perhaps in anticipation of the increased focus on my own family, or maybe just due to the grey winter in Goshen, I’ve felt a deep need to cocoon myself in beauty. I feel fine for sessions and am actually enjoying them. But in my personal life, I need to go with the flow right now, so please excuse slower and much shorter responses to chatty emails.

Even before my dad’s health took this sudden downturn, I had withdrawn more into my permaculture design course, a lovely Druid course, and setting things up to support me writing books again, both fiction and non-fiction. This all feels good and perfectly timed, but with the increased family stress and responsibilities, it’s not a luxury. I need this inner time to rejuvenate myself, and I stay on path in order to walk through this time period with ease and grace.

I spent yesterday afternoon studying permaculture and drinking in the beauty of my new writing office. The windows overlook my snow covered gardens, but the snow didn’t stop dozens of birds from darting around the lovingly planted trees and shrubs. A robin visited me as I sat on my rocker, reading and smiling. Between the bright wall colors, gorgeous tapestry from sweet faery twin, Tania Marie, views of my growing food forest, and a magical mandala rug, yesterday transported me into the all encompassing beauty my soul craves. It’s chilly in that writing office, though, so I realized I finally have a perfect spot for one of those electric fireplaces or old fashioned electric wood stove heaters I’ve long wanted. I think the extra coziness of a fire element between rocking chair and computer desk will take that room over the Moon. 🙂

I’ll leave you with some of yesterday’s views from my rocking chair, as well as heartfelt gratitude for all the care and prayers of such wonderful, kind, and powerful blog readers. Thank you, thank you! Much love and continued blessings! ~ Laura

 

 

 

How to Make Sure You’re Not Practicing Black Magic(k) By Accident

I’m not linking to the site where this comment appeared, because I do not wish to drop the referenced image anymore into the collective awareness than it already is. Nor do I wish to call out someone whom I know harbors no ill intent. I don’t know if my comment will see the light of day or not, but the concept bears mentioning:

Raven:

“This artist is doing a really fine job of providing endless mental images of what we do not want to happen. Why do you keep posting them? When people carry these images in their mind they create that reality. This isn’t waking up, it’s creating doom.”

[followed by a couple disbelieving/scoffing comments from others]

My response (currently awaiting moderation):

Raven is absolutely right in her comment on the ___ article. Anytime someone uses creativity to produce an extremely negative-oriented vision, especially via artwork and visual symbols, they are actually practicing the black magic(k) so many of you fear from the “Illuminati.”

That’s exactly what they do in Hollywood, in the mass televised rituals, etc. Jon Rappoport has written about the power of art, and it works both ways. We can use our creative powers to paint portals to more positive realities, to reclaim symbols or energies for our own preferred intentions … or we can (whether consciously or not) create spells via symbols and/or words that usher in the doom in far more powerful ways than the Illuminati/archons, etc. can do on their own. They cannot, by themselves, create. They use humanity’s imagination and power to create.

Just an FYI. It’s one reason I keep suggesting that people study metaphysics and magic(k). When you know how this stuff works, you become extremely careful not to do someone else’s black magic(k) and creating for them. Imagination and art are the most powerful forces in the universe. They can be fueled by love, hate or confusion. Love is powerful, but, contrary to the Beatles song, love is not “all you need.” Imagination creates and thus deserves extreme respect if we do not wish to mis-create.

I know you and the artist aren’t intentionally practicing black magic(k), but tapping into creative inspiration and imagination and then focusing those intently into a negative or harmful reality/form is actually the very definition of black magic(k).

Update: please see comments below for an important distinction between Shadow Work and black magick.

Gratitude for Relationships

When my parents visited me in Chicago this Summer, my dad unloaded a few boxes of my “things,” which had been lurking around my old bedroom. I was content to leave them there, but at 37, I guess I’ve officially grown up and moved out of the house! In any case, I’ve been sorting through those boxes as I prepare to pack for Madison. A couple months ago I found my 5th Grade Journals, and today I stumbled upon all my 9th Grade Creative Writing — poems, practice, short stories. I thought I’d share this exercise and what arose from it, as the whole process seems so fitting as we approach Thanksgiving.

The assignment (as best as I can remember it) was to write a poem with six stanzas exploring one important relationship in your life. Title the stanzas in this order:

The Meeting
The Attraction
The Memories
The Love
The Gain
And Now

I find the challenge of writing poetry a gentle and lovely way to explore relationships, but for the poetically-intimidated, some active journaling may prove just as fruitful. The important part is to focus wholeheartedly on a particular relationship in your life, paying attention to the way that intimacy evolved from Meeting until Now, letting Memories filter in between Attraction and Love, and making note of the Gain. This can be a potent exercise for releasing hurt and putting it into perspective, as well as feeling blessed for people making obvious positive impact on your life.

At age 14, I wrote my poem about my brother, Craig, who is 5 1/2 years younger than me and was one of my best buddies growing up.

The Meeting
It was the brink of childhood–
When reality was blowing bubbles
And watching them float across the sky
Wearing Easter bonnets and sucking on lollipops
But daydreams didn’t hide the tiny fingers
Or the toothless loving smile…
And Nursery Rhymes could not disguise
The wonder in my eyes.

The Attraction
Kindergarten drifted by
But imaginary friends still lingered
Tiptoeing in shadows
And begging to play house with the big kids
He stood up on Easter and his eyes sparkled
When he found a purple egg.
A pudgy grin lit up his face
And I was proud of him.

The Memories
Flying on the wings of time
We tumbled down snowy hilltops
Grasping at the powdery whiteness
And collapsed in laughter at the bottom.
And in the summer we melted in the sun
Chewing on pretzel sticks
And splashing in the baby pool.
After dinner our voices chattered in the twilight
As we chased lightning bugs in the darkness.

The Love
Filtered sunlight glistened on a rushing brook
As a slender fawn bent down to sip the water.
Its speckles, so simply etched in white
Moved in graceful innocence as it turned
Prancing into the green depths of the forest.
Over the years it returned
And the spots were replaced by an eloquently streamlined strength
That whispered gently to the rippling currents.

The Gain
As crisp fall breezes streamed through their hair
Two children held tightly to the reins of life
Swishing in unison above the scattered playground
Their eyes were shining
When they sliced through the clouds
And the air was filled with laughter
As they swooped to earth again.

And Now
We stand together watching the daylight slowly disappear
As images of lightning bugs and lazy summers
Twinkle in my mind
When I turn to him and smile
Memories drift across the sky
With the quiet sweeps of the setting sun
And I hold him close to me
Under the starry heavens above.

(Wishing you all a gratitude filled November and always. I’d like to acknowledge Leonard Perrett as the original inspiration for this exercise. I hope you find it fruitful, healing and empowering. Abundant blessings and Much Love! ~Laura)