A year's time and lessons way beyond myself...

Here we all are.. we have stepped into another new year.. we have been through another full cycle of another beautiful year. This however, is a year so different than any year any of us here on earth now have ever experienced.

I know this, and I can feel this with all of my being. Things are changing, everything is always changing, but it is different this time. The univers

e, the earth, the entire energy is crying out for healing, and crying out to be re-noticed.

Like I have said so many times before, our ancestors before us were so much more connected, to each-other and to everything around them. They knew the plants, the animals, they knew on a personal level everything around them that could be of use, and so importantly they knew and valued the exchange of energy. Giving and receiving on so many levels.

The last few years have brought about a global awakening, or should I say a global test of awakening. There have been so many obstacles put in the path of so many people. So many people loosing their jobs, their homes, everything we all valued as the basics in life...

There have been so many chances to let it bu

ry you alive and force you to a life of grief, or a chance to truly clear the clouds of your perception, see things exactly as they are, honor them for what they are and how they came to be, and then use them to GROW..

We all do have our down times, we are ALL on this human path and have human emotions. I will be the first to tell you that I am not always happy and in a perfect space of bliss... but I will tell you that every single thing put in my path have all been such a blessing because they all helped me to grow into who I am and what I value in this life. The hard things, and the things of complete joy..they are all a part of me. Every person I have been blessed to learn from, to meet, a little bit of every one of them is a part of me and who I am. Its a wonderful feeling to think of many of those people, (and animals) and feel the essence of them all around me, because they are a part of me, it becomes really hard to feel alone...

I am much more able to see my obstacles, or my s

adness, really honor it and then let it go.. get back to really seeing the beauty in so many things all around me, so much easier than I every thought possible.

We live in a life of abundance, weather you see it now or not, it is so available to you, and you will feel so amazed at a NEW start to life. A newness to everything around you, like you are a child discovering things for the first time. I know for me, these feelings were intensified with my Reiki master attunment.. like something made the final click I needed to feel the warmth of the world around me and be on my true path of purpose... but you don't need that to feel what I now feel.

As I look back at the past few years and the changes I have gone through I know the root of changes and how important they each are to set you on a new experience of life around you..

I have no idea if there is an order these need to go in, but I feel everyone experiences them at some level over and over and maybe in cycles. I tend to do a lot of things backwards, or in an order that seems very out of the normal.. on so many levels of life... but that's just how I roll :)

As I think of my path and the 'order' which I fully learned and lived each of them, I see right away how the last one I 'got' may really be the best to start with for most people. However, in the universe everything happens exactly the way it should in exactly the order it should for every person. No two people are on the same path. Its yours and yours alone and YOU are the only one who can truly listen and know what is right for you at a specific time in your life...

The most recent thing I finally TRULY learned about is self care. I have heard it most of my life I have said I practiced it, but so much of mine, and I know many other peoples make up is meeting other peoples needs. Making sure they are cared for.. especially being a mother, a wife, a husband providing for your family.. You truly can do no one else any more good than you do for yourself. If you really want to be the best help you can to those you love, you better really understand this concept. You can not give out any more love, respect, care, or nurturing than what you have contained inside of yourself FOR yourself. It was said to me many many times, but not until you are really taking that time for filling yourself will you every fully understand what I am saying.. What really helped me through this was to throw out the window all of the worry and issues I was having trying to see my place in the world. When I started running workshops, I quickly realized that I was about the youngest person in the room every time. I started thinking, who I am I to teach these people anything, to lead them in any way.. I worried about what I really could teach people. I was drawn so strong to play this role in life but very un-confident in WHY. As soon as I changed my thoughts to what fulfills me and what am I passionate about.. the rest faded away and I look for that feeling in many places of life.

Start simple and see where it leads, find the feeling that fulfills you the most and make more time for it. Fulfill yourself by fulfilling what makes you happy, You will be in gratitude that you did.

The next thing is truly LETTING GO of everything. This does not mean giving up, or loosing hope at ALL. This is simply acknowledgement that the universal energy flows through the world at the path of least resistance. It flows to positive light and only works for the highest good of everything involved. This may not always be easy or what you think you really want.. because you are now letting the universe/ god/ the outside forces lead you on your path here. I know from my own life, completely letting go does not always mean you will loose everything you let go of, it just allows that space for the winds of the universe to blow freely and gently push you along your path. When you say you have let go but you are still holding on, even with little strings on the way you want the outcome to be personally, you have strings in the way of that wind and it cant really do what it needs to do for you.

Which brings me to another thing, giving and being completely unattached to the outcome. When you give things, such as love, energy, and support to other people purely from your heart with no strings attached.. this is where true magic can happen. I personally give because I absolutely love giving, its a win win place for me because in spaces such as my client sessions, in workshops, or just in my daily life.. any small thing I can give to someone else instantly adds so much joy into my life. But if you don't feel that instantly that is completely fine, all people are different and we all experience things differently. Just remembering how energy works, what you put out there is what you will receive back, is some form or another. Don't do things expecting something back in any other way either though, because you are attaching strings. Just know the universe will provide for you and leave it at that.

The last thing I want to touch on, since I am trying to write a blog and not a book... (thank you for reading this far if you have) is the importance of being in gratitude. Feel the connection to everything around you and be so grateful for it all. We are so blessed by this life. Our soul chose to come down to this earth to fulfill a journey, and to live this life you are living. Everything is so beautiful. Looking out my window as I am writing this I am in gratitude. The sun is shining on the trees, they are all so strong and so full of energy, they are leafless and dancing gently with the wind. The birds are flying through the branches and much of nature is sleeping, yet providing to so many others, including me. We are all so blessed to be here on this earth, and I feel so connected and so full of purpose just knowing I am a part of it all. I am connected to everything and everyone in some way, and so are you. Your path will touch so many other peoples path and parts of you will be carried with them, just like I carry so many with me.. Gratitude just grows more gratitude and with that comes feeling more connected to the world around you, with connection comes an awakening of your own inner knowing and inner purpose. If you have trouble being in gratitude, start how I did, make a list every day of things you are grateful for. It may start with one thing, I know mine only had a few, and that's ok. You will be amazed at how your list will grow. Can't think of one? Start by being thankful for getting out of bed, for having another day in this life, or having your loved one for another day in your life, because no one is gaurenteed another day.

With ALL of that said..I was feeling so called to share this information with you because we are all in a time of amazing movement. The power of manifestation seems to be amplified right now all over the world. Things you used to have to focus on for a long time to make them a reality are somehow being instantly answered by the universe, IF they are only for the highest good. Time seems to be timeless right now. (and for me, who has a hard time with the concept of time anyways.. this can feel really overwhelming) At the same sense, everything is so amplified right now, and the intensity of the low points can easily pull you down if you don't consciously change the way you think of your own reality. Because that is what it is, it is your own path and your own reality, but you are so far from being alone on it.

We all need each other and connection to each other more than ever, for support when we give it and support when we are in a space to accept it. It is all infinite, it is all connected and life is so so beautiful. Praying in a sweat lodge is my way of practicing connection, but this of course is not the only way of connecting. A lot of knowing comes from within.. and a lot comes from the universe, your guides, and from messengers everywhere waiting to be discovered by you.

In all of history time blocks of years had great change, HUGE shifts that the people and animals of earth had to adapt to and change with. It really makes me wonder how we could be so naive as a whole to think that we are in the ONLY period of time on this earth that will be the same forever. Earth is actually over-due for an ice age. Hearing that and seeing the research was a wonderful reminder of adaptation. Animals in nature who are most adaptable to climates, movement and changes are the ones who are the strongest in number.

Wankantanka... the great mystery... there is so much in connecting to it all and embracing it on your path.

Honoring the light within...

Next week is the traditional time of giving thanks, of gathering with family and sharing time together. I don't know about everyone, but I do know for so many people the past few years have really been shifting to a space of being in true gratitude every day. Sometimes you get to a place of really feeling you are at your lowest point to make you open up and surrender to letting spirit/ the universe take control and give in to trusting. We are being asked to feel this trust and this gratitude every day, even when you are at your highest points too..

There is so much shifting... so many trials...so many hard spaces of life we are and have been asked to go through. Every single one of them is a chance to live in love and to grow more into your spiritual essence and purpose in this life. I spent so much of my life searching for something I felt I was missing, like so many people do..when it was all here all along, all around me, all within me. All around you, and within YOU...

When I first started truly opening up to so many things I used to not pay attention to, I really was worried about who I said certain things to, who I would offend, who would think I was completely nuts.... I thought that was important. However, it didn't take me long to let go of that, because I now know that we are all so connected, all the same, all of the same divine light. It is not about religion, or about my beliefs being different than anyone else's, it is about finding that space where they are the same. In the root of all religion are really the same beliefs, when you take it to the simple level of things. Love, compassion/ forgiveness, and being grateful, then taking the time to honor these things through meditation, silence or prayer.

We each do of course have our own uniqueness and our own individual path we need to fill, but it is finally coming back to a time where we are not meant to do that alone, it is about connecting with each other and using other people and other animals, other plants, as our way of finding our own light. We have so much in us that always wants an answer to things as well, and a huge part of getting back to the true core of our being and our purpose is accepting and flowing and growing. We will never know all of the answers and we will always be given a chance to learn and to grow.

I have been so honored and so blessed by so many teachers, so many elders making a presence and sharing their knowledge. I started off my weekend last weekend at the Star knowledge conference at Serpent Mound. These conferences are such a beautiful amazing form of sharing and of growth. They hold 13 a year all over the country, so many elders from many places are coming together and speaking out, sharing their knowledge and their truth. We should all feel so honored for this chance at this time. They do not have to share but they have been asked to by divine means because our planet needs this. Not just our local community, our city, our state, but everyone all across parts of the world are being asked to heal this earth...

Sunday Uncle Bob Randall came out and spent the day at our farm. His culture was living one of the oldest ways of life as we know it in Australia. They did not have homes, they did not own the land, they lived with the land. They lived like this for longer than our history can even think about. Their youngest children could survive in a desert finding food, water, making shelter, and living in harmony with not only each- other but with all living things. There was no war, because all tribes treated each-other equally, with respect, and they had a true sense of living on the earth. They did not own the earth, because she owns us. Settlers came in and began to make it known they owned the land, and everything changed. It is always a sad situation when someone believes their ways are the only ways and are right. That is just not what it is meant to be. We are all meant to learn from each-other and share with each-other so that life can be experienced to the fullest it possibly can.. WHY else are we here?

I am still processing so much from my recent experiences with Bob and Barbara and with so many other people, and animals and plants that have come so willingly into my life. Being taught original song and ways of ceremony really does move your spirit to a place not able to be explained by words.... learning from any elder is something to be cherished and respected and honored.....I am ready for a space of honoring all that has been learned. I have been going inward which I feel is so important for the balance of the physical and the spiritual. There are so many messages readily available to anyone who is willing to open up and listen, feel, see or sense them. They are all around you, they are in your dreams, they are in your experiences with other people and from the physical realm of life we are all here walking in. It is definitely not always easy, and personally I am working on the balance of being in pure spirit and true purpose while still dealing with and keeping a balance on earthly in the now, life things.

I find so much comfort in the realization the last month has given me, and that is how connected we all truly are. So many people are finding their light and connecting it to others, so many people, not just us, not just in our community are working on ways to become self sufficient again, the way things used to be and can be. We are all people made up of our individual experiences, we each pick up the essence of other beings we learn from, we meet. A little bit of what we resonate with in each path we cross becomes part of who we are and our light we carry around in this world. The root of growing is letting everything originate in love, because anything that is of pure love will be supported by the universe. "The wind of love is everywhere" as Bob sings in one of his many beautiful songs..it is just allowing that wind to surround your entire being, soak into your soul and emit from your breath..

I am truly in so much gratitude and so much thanks, to the earth, to being connected, to floating on the winds of love and letting go of earthly things we were all taught as being the most important things in life.. Life is always changing and I know deep in my soul we are all being asked to reconnect to each-other and to everything around us, so we can also change and bring this earth back to a space of balanced living. May you all make the time to re-connect with your family and soak in your blessings, this next week and every week after....

Glistening Winter Snow....

Here we are, at the extremely fast start of another new year, winter snow glistening in the warm sun like glitter sprinkled all over the ground. The reflection of it keeps bringing my mind through the rotation of the seasons, the growth of so many things in the stillness of the earth in its frozen state.
It seems as though a few days ago we were climbing in and out of the creek bed back in the warm woods, watching the bright yellow, orange and red leaves dance to the ground. We found a lot of good treasures again this year, even into the winter. Pottery pieces, arrowheads, tools.. Makes me wonder if time seemed to swirl by just as fast when the ones before us were living in these woods, in this field where the lavender mounds now stand.
The winter has been kind to our lavender babies this year so far. Although the first field will be reaching its fourth year in the ground, just like the kids they are still babies, which take love and attention to truly flourish in this life. The snow coating gives them a nice insulation from the cold chill of the wind. We are keeping our intentions out that if ice has to make its presence this year that at least mother nature will make a nice coat of snow first.
I definitely got behind in the fall keeping the weeds out of the holes in the field. We had more of them because of missing or damaged plants from the previous ice winters. It actually became very calming and peaceful to me when I gave into making the weeds less of a priority in life. Seeing the beauty of the wild weeds in lovely harmony with the lavender buds, painted a beautiful picture all by themselves.
As fast as this year has truly gone, I am amazed at how long ago and how different life was a year ago. The universe, god, has really decided that I needed to grow, and to learn, and I needed to do it fast. Lessons in life can be extremely hard, they can be very trying, and they can change us as people. The question is, do we let them change us for the worse, or do we let them seep deep inside, and truly listen to the whispers they have for our souls, the lessons they have to teach, and the growth they can offer to build us into the person we are asked to become.
Listening, is a very different thing than thinking. I have thought myself into knots for much of my life.I was always trying to figure it all out, trying to have an answer to everything, when the excitement of life is not always having the answers, just feeling and knowing you are exactly where you need to be at this moment in time. I was blessed over and over again this past year by amazing teachers, and guides for me to help keep my head in the right direction and to help keep my lessons from knocking me into a hole in the earth. I know that this past year was a major crossroad for so many people.. my hope is that they decided to follow their faith, their heart and their feelings down a path that brings only more light. If you have gone down one that does not feel this way, I know this new year has many chances of amazing growth, so do not forget to feel your direction and you can't go wrong.
This year is definitely a new year. A lot of listening for both Mike and I has been knowing there are things we need to let go of in order to truly enjoy this precious life that was given to us. We still do not know for sure what exactly that means or what this new existence has in store for our journey, but we are not meant to know all of those answers right now.
This past year brought about our first half acre of produce, which I was ready to throw my white flag in after lettuce (first crop of our year), Many new lavender creations, our official OEFFA organic certification, our first annual field day event (which was wonderful), so many new wonderful people in our lives, and a lot of new trials for us to meet.
I do know my work with Reflexology is only the beginning of what I am meant to do for people, and I have an extreme passion and excitement for being able to add any type of light and comfort into peoples lives. I also know that growing involves letting go of things that no longer serve our purpose, and this can be in so many forms. I am ready for this change, and truly excited about the journeys to come.
I miss my kids while they are at school a lot, and am happy for my hiking buddy, Moon (the big white dog) who is always there with wide loving eyes, and for my wonderful husband who has been in full swing using his mind creating websites for other people and making ours wonderful :) If you need a website, by the way, check out www.lunacraze.com!

For now, while the repair business I run is in full swing, I make as many products as I can, talk to many people about their broken down fitness equipment, do a lot of paperwork, and watch the beautiful red-tailed hawk that now follows me around and lives in our woods at the farm. It's reassurance is always there flying above letting anyone who sees him know that you are on this journey in life to grow into your full potential. May your journey be wonderful!!