Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everybody. I hope you have a joyful holiday today. I know there are those who aren’t in the best circumstances right now, and even if the hyper activity of the season offends you take a moment, just 60 seconds when you get the opportunity, to reach down deep into that quiet place within yourself and rest for a moment.

I don’t care if you say you don’t know how to do this. Just pretend. The way I figure it we are all in this together. We are all a part of this world and of other spiritual places, of other planes, the past and the future and the now. It doesn’t matter even if you don’t celebrate Christmas. This isn’t a club.

Pretend and once you are sitting and see this pretend place within your own heart be at peace. It can come. There are those, “on the other side” who wait for you to open your eyes and be welcomed. These Folk in Spirit, as I refer to them, are your own spiritual guides, your own angels, your own loved ones who have passed over, even your own beloved pets gone to doggy or kitty heaven. Guinea pigs. I forgot. Yes, chickens too. Elephants and whales. In any case, you get the picture. Whatever is appropriate for you to see, to experience will be there for you. Trust your higher self.

However you choose to celebrate or don’t celebrate, I hope you might feel the peace of this day.

One, Two, Three - Say Cheese!

How difficult would it be for you to smile at a stranger in the grocery store next time you are there? That simple smile and acknowledgement of them as a fellow human being might be all that they need to pass your smile on to somebody else.

The findings of a study released recently by the Harvard Medical School and the University of California in San Diego and published 12/4/08 in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) pondered the effect of happiness on people, who know people, who know people, who know people. Happiness is passed along to three degrees of separation from yourself. And, it would appear that the happiness lasts up to a year’s time. Conversely, sadness does not travel through the network like happiness does.

Interestingly, the researchers used data that had already been compiled for a study of over 5,000 cardiovascular patients that spanned a period of 20 years.

Smile. You never know who is watching.

Listening to Shelby

Every morning Shelby, our littlest cat, comes to wake me up. Usually, it’s about 5:00 am, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, but my mornings always start with her walking on me. She starts from the bottom of the bed and works her way up with inquisitory meows. I complete the welcome by patting my stomach to have her come settle for a few minutes before I get up.

This morning was no different from any other morning and she made her way up to settle down and have some quiet time with me before I got out of bed. However, that’s when DeeDude commenced to snore. These were loud snores too. Hggghhhhhh….. Hggghhhhh…. Hggghhhh. I could see Shelby’s interest peek. I was thinking she might be thinking DeeDude was awake and ready to play so I held onto her a little tighter so she wouldn’t take a notion to go jump on DeeDude who, though snoring enough to wake the neighborhood, was still fast asleep.

There we were, me holding Shelby as she continued to purr and to watch DeeDude with fascinated interest. And, that’s when I caught the errant thought from Shelby. She was interested in DeeDude’s snoring because she thought he was purring. I have to explain what a particularly interesting moment this was for me. I am psychic. I am a channel. I talk to Spirit Guides and folks in Spirit and animals in Spirit. It’s all one. I can do it easily. What I don’t do as easily is talk to and understand the live animals. It happens once in awhile. But, the times that it happens are few and far between.

It happened this morning when Shelby thought DeeDude was purring.

Thanksgiving Day

My heart goes out to those in terror situations, to those in war, to those under siege. My heart goes out to those in pain, to those who grieve, to those whose hearts are breaking. If I could I would take away your pain, but I cannot. I can only grieve with you and send you whatever thoughts I have of love and of healing.

Today is a day of Thanksgiving in the United States. Everywhere people are gathered, sometimes in large groups with friends and family, sometimes in small groups. Our hearts are lifted in gratitude. I wish all who are celebrating a Happy Thanksgiving and I send my love and prayers to those people in need.

What Seth Looks Like - my 600th post

To celebrate my 600th post, this is a picture of Seth. Robert Butts, Jane Roberts' husband painted it a long time ago.

About Writing

It’s easier to achieve a dream if you break the journey down into steps. Like the prospect of writing a book. Say, we’re talking about 75,000 words. It’s not a huge tome like, “War and Peace”, but then it’s bigger than, “The Little Engine that Could”.

First step would be to have something to write about. Once you’re set on that the rest of it is actually gravy. You’d need to examine your intentions too. If you are writing with the sole intent of being a famous author remembered through the ages for your writing, for your clarity of thought, for your succinct handling of language; forget it. If you are writing just to make money; that too is a bad idea. I don’t know why, but it is.

Why you write should be more along the lines of you can’t do anything else. It’s a driven sort of thing. If you are not exactly driven right now you could develop the habit by writing in small chunks. You could write 500 words a day. Every day. Actually, 500 words isn’t really that much. It’s not even a full page of typewritten material. Write about anything you want to write about. Cut pictures out of magazines or print them off of the internet and write a page about the picture. Describe what is going on. If there are people in the picture pretend that you can see into their hearts and talk about what they are feeling.

Once you are easy with the 500 words a day extend that by a few hundred and do a page and a half. Then, after a week or two of the increased output aim for 2 pages a day. Now, at 2 pages a day you are writing about 1,200 words a day. That is a pretty descent output. The rule of thumb is to write 1,000 words a day, but I figure filling 2 pages is easier than counting. Or you could use the word count feature in your word processing program for awhile until you get sick of it and just count pages of new material.

Once you have the driven thing down you are invited to begin work on your book. That in itself can seem daunting, but just plunge in. You could develop an outline or have index cards filled out. One of my favorite techniques is to write the story in the form of a short sentence: “A wants to go to B and finds herself distracted at every turn.” Then, you go back and expand that sentence a little bit: “A wants to go to B because her sister is being held captive by an ornery old woman. A sets out on her journey but finds obstacle after obstacle is thrown up in her face.” You get the idea. Just keep expanding on these sentences until you’ve got a paragraph of, maybe, 10 sentences. Then, take each one of those sentences and expand each one of them into a paragraph. Now, you’ve got your book on one page and each one of those paragraphs can eventually be a chapter.

You will probably see that your story goes every which way anyway, but the original plan might just carry you through from beginning to end.

You’ll know you’ve hit the driven quality of writing when you find yourself thinking about what you are writing about while you are filling your car with gas, while you are waiting in line at the grocery story, while you are driving to work. There’s a story I love of James Thurber and his wife. They were at a cocktail party and James was standing by himself in the middle of the room. He had a drink in one hand and some hors d'oeuvres in the other. He was just standing there not talking to anybody although people swirled all around him. His wife was across the room. She spied him where he stood all alone in the middle of a room full of people and stalked across to him. She hissed at him, “Quit writing.” I just love that story.

It is important that you write every day. You might feel now that you don’t have a minute to call your own, but you can carve out an hour or two for yourself if you try. My favorite time to write is in the very early morning before everybody gets up and before I go to work; and I do have a full time job. I tend to go to sleep a little earlier when I’m writing so I can get up a little earlier and have that time to myself. I put some headphones on and will either play music or not. Many times I “come to” to find that I’ve been sitting here writing for 45 minutes with headphones on and nothing coming out of them. But, there was a time when I wrote a book mostly listening to Celtic music. One of my favorite pieces is, “Wind Horse” from Bill Douglas' album Celtic Twilight. Another favorite I listen to is Dr. Jeffrey Thompson’s Brainwave Suite. Background music that helps to get me in the mood that helps to sustain the moment and that will mask background noises if I am writing once everybody is awake.

Stephen King, one of my all time favorite authors, listens to rock music while he writes. He also writes every day. Every day. I believe he takes one day off a year which, if I remember correctly, is his birthday. Otherwise, it is every day.

Something else that is going to happen which might alarm you in the beginning but will quickly feel okay is that all that you write is not going to end up in the book. You will probably write yourself into a corner at some point. Speaking from personal experience I can tell you that if you’ve killed off a key character and need them later on to extricate your other folks you will have written yourself into a corner. This is where you go someplace quiet and try to figure out what to do next. A good technique is to begin a separate piece where you allow your characters to speak to you. Just pretend. Let them talk to you and tell you where they think the story should go. This is where you deviate from your original plan, but hey, it happens. Also, you could just go lie down on your bed with a tape recorder and let the free thoughts come. One time I’d written myself into a corner and did the tape recorder thing to not only get myself out of the jam I was in but also had six month’s worth of writing material to work on and I only talked for 15 minutes.

Anyway, getting yourself out of a jam might entail you deleting a portion of what you’ve already written, or changing it somewhat. There are those writers who save that deleted material in other file to be used later on. I just delete it.

Having written a book I can tell now when I read stuff other people have written when they get bored. It’s this draggy quality to the material. These are folks who got bored with what they were doing and pushed on regardless. Been there…done that. Anyway, consider jumping forward to another part of the book and writing that for awhile. You’ve got a plan and can do that. Then, go back to your original spot where you started getting bored and resume writing. It might help. Or, just delete a bit of it and start over.

Doing this writing every day is a lonely thing. There’s nobody but yourself involved though you’ll need some support from your family members. Like, “Don’t talk to me when you see me with my headphones on.” I’m actually thinking about decorating my headphones with flowers or something just to make them special, but that’s sort of silly. Fun, but silly.

I remember reading somewhere that a book might be compared to an iceberg. What you are reading is the part of the iceberg above water. The part you don’t see, the enormous mass of the iceberg that is underwater is the mass of written material that never saw the light of day. It was a necessary part of the book, but you just don’t get to read it. That material might be saved for future projects or it could just be character sketches that you do to get an idea of what your characters are like before you have them hit the pages of your book.

So, my husband is up. I’ve written 1,439 words (which is almost two and a half pages) and that’s enough for today. I’m also running out of steam. These are my thoughts about writing and I hope they help you to achieve a dream that not that many people dare to do. Write a book. And, when people ask you what you do you can honestly say to them that you are a writer.

Where I Find Some Keys

One of the most frequent requests I get from people along the line of “Things Psychic” is help on finding lost articles. You’d think that would actually be an easy one, but, in actuality it is difficult.

Over the years I’ve misplaced tons of stuff. As I’ve gotten older and accumulated more stuff it has gotten worse. But, I have asked for help from my guides and from Spirit many times in finding things I’ve misplaced. Most of the time they would chime in with, “Look up.” This has never seemed to be very helpful and when I’ve gotten that response I figured they were telling me in their own way that they were not going to help me on that one.

But, there have been times when it did help to ask them for help and when their help was forthcoming. I wrote a story about how Seth, my guide, helped me to find a pair of slippers years ago. It’s here at my other website, so I won’t go into that rather long story here.

What I want to talk about here was how my husband, DeeDude, misplaced his keys yesterday and how Spirit helped me to find them for him.

Here’s the scenario: I walk in the door from work. We’re going to a dinner being put on by the Alameda County Historical Society in an hour and a half and I need to get ready for that. I’m already nervous about it because this is the first time in years that I’m going out to a function with my husband. I just don’t get out much being very shy and frightened of crowds. But, I’m thinking that it’s time for me to start getting over these fears and I’ve been working on it. However, I’m still edgy and it’s not going to take much to send me over the edge. Hence, the story gets real interesting.

I walk in the door and DeeDude says to me, “I’m having a minor crisis.” I hate when he says that. My heart leaped up into my throat and I stuffed it all back down to calmly walk in thinking the car has been wrecked, or he’s lost his job or all manner of horrible things. He’s obviously not bleeding, so I don’t have to worry about that. He says, “I can’t find my keys. I’ve been looking for them for over an hour. I was going to go to the store and I went to get them and I couldn’t find them.”

So, although I know it’s sending him over the edge I start grilling him on just what he did when he got home from the errands he was doing earlier in the day. He obviously got into the house using the keys, but, where are they now? I searched through all the places he’d already looked: In the seat cushions in his chair…on all the counters in the kitchen and the bathroom…on the book shelves….in his pockets….again…under the chair….in his other pockets (which was starting to get ridiculous since he hadn’t changed clothes). I dumped over the recycling can to see if they had gotten mixed up in a box he’d thrown away…I looked everywhere. At the same time he’s at the other end of our house looking again in the same places he’d looked before.

I located a spare set of car keys for him and he went down to his car to see if he hadn’t locked them in there because he’d made several trips carrying things up to the house. Nowhere. Nowhere could we find those keys.

I’m moving towards the idea that we’re just going to need to get another set for him. We’ve already got spares for everything. I made him check to see if the fuel lock key and the club key on the spare set work for this car. They do. So, this is where I sort of gave up.

All through this search I’d been asking for help from Spirit. I didn’t actually expect much because I was at such a high level of anxiety about it. The party was looming…I wasn’t doing what I needed to do to get ready…DeeDude was really upset and I was not operating in a cool, calm and collected manner. Spirit gave me that smart ass suggestion of looking up several times so I gathered they weren’t going to be around to help me on this one and we were on our own trying to find DeeDude’s keys, which I thought was a pity since I ought to, as a psychic of many years, at least be able to do this one thing.

I went out onto the patio and leaned over onto the arms of one of our plastic lawn chairs. I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath and I tried to calm down. I knew that trying to tap into that “other space” is very difficult when you’re uptight. I said, “Please, I really need you guys to help me now. If you’ve ever helped me before help me now.” I stayed bent over for a few more seconds until DeeDude came to the door and demanded to know what I was doing. I didn’t say, but I walked back into the house.

I went into the kitchen, stood in front of two of the drawers, pulled them both open at the same time and this is what I saw:




By the way, the dinner was fabulous. They had it at Spenger's in Berkeley and Richard Schwartz, a friend of DeeDude's, gave an interesting presetation of early days in Alameda County. You can see the work he's done at his website: www.richardschwartz.info

Voices of Angels

A Question Answered about Ouija Boards

I got this email today and thought others might find it useful.

The Question: When you start with the Ouija Board (On your site), what do you say?? How do you begin??

My Answer: When I sit at the Ouija Board there is no beginning word to start, it is just on.

The problem when I was learning how, the six months leading up to when it actually worked there was nothing, absolutely nothing I could do to make the stupid thing work. It was horribly frustrating, but I kept trying. I’d sit there and concentrate and meditate and pray for my guide to please, please, please come talk to me. Nothing. Nothing would happen at all.

But, I kept trying.

Now, I sit down and phrase whatever I want to talk about silently in my head and zip, zoom, swoosh, there goes the planchette. There is no sitting politely and reverently asking for my guide to please come talk to me. I know that my guide is always at my side, when I’m sleeping, when I’m driving, when I’m eating, even, Heaven forbid, when I’m sitting on the toilet. No privacy. No privacy at all anymore.

What’s fun about it is that I can do Air Ouija now. I sort of made it up. You don’t need a board or a planchette to make it work. You just sort of imagine the board in front of you and your finger sketches into the air pointing at the invisible letters. For me it’s more useful for Yes and No questions since I can clearly remember where those words are on the board. I sort of forget where the letters are….and I can hear anyway, so I don’t have to see who’s pointing to what to know what it is they are talking about. It’s just a fun and silly thing to do. Make a game of it, but always, always be mature about only asking to speak with your guide.

The stuff you’re going to be hearing in the beginning is going to be strange and off the wall depending on how mature you are, how susceptible you are to superstitious things, how afraid you are of things that go bump in the night and how psychologically well balanced you really are. If you are under a doctor’s care for a psychiatric issue then you do NOT want to do this.

If you make a promise to yourself that you will not be afraid to pay attention to your own psychological growth to include going to see a therapist if it gets to that then you will be okay. Talking to Spirit really pushes your buttons. You will find yourself, whether you want to be there or not, on the fast track of spiritual growth. And spiritual growth includes that your body, both physical and mental be in the best shape you can get to given what you’ve got to work with.

So, be very real and mature about asking for contact with your guide because it will NOT be limited to only the times that you sit there at the Ouija Board. And, once you get things moving with the Ouija Board there is not unmaking the connection with Spirit. You’ve broken through and there ain’t no backing out anymore.

You can find more information about using the Ouija Board at my site Talking to Spirit.

Mend Your Ways

(A preface to this entry...a little way into it the guides stepped in and we began talking. I put their parts of the conversation in italics.)

Have you ever thought that you might miss out on something important if you aren’t constantly vigilant? Like, if you were to relax some terrific deal would pass you by and you’d find out about it later only to berate yourself for not being on the ball.

I think this is stinking thinking.

I can’t say that I haven’t done it myself, but it sort of just occurred to me that maybe I’m a little bit too uptight. So what if it costs $50 more just because I missed the sale. I’m going to buy it, whatever it is, when I’m good and ready to get it. There. I said it. I think I might be on the verge of relaxing a little bit.

What I’m trying to do here is force an article. I do this every month. About half way through the month I start wringing my hands (figuratively) and tying myself up in stress knots trying to think of an imaginative, grab everybody’s attention sort of little article I can use in my newsletter.

Every month I’ve been doing this and I even toyed with the idea of not doing it anymore because the ideas just aren’t flowing the way they used to.

Wrongo. Keep going with it, Pauline. Well, what if I’m boring? So what? Everybody is boring to some extent. Right. I guess it’s okay to be boring. Go ask your husband. Well, that was brilliant. He said I’ve been boring for the last 35 years. Well, you’re still married aren’t you? Yes. You can’t be that boring. I guess not. Maybe my biorhythms are really sucky right now. What other excuse can you think of?

Maybe this is morphing into a learn to channel blog entry. I think not. You probably would not want your students to see you at this shining moment. Why not? You’re not exactly an example for stellar channeling abilities right now. There’s nothing wrong with the way I’m channeling. No, there is not. I guess it’s my attitude. Right. Did you just smack your own behind? Yes. Sort of like Grace might do on the “Saving Grace” show. You’re sick. I am not, I’m your guide. Seth, in fact. Why do you think I’m sick? No one has ever accused me of being sick before. There is nothing perverted about smacking your own behind. Well, it’s just that usually you stick your finger alongside your nose and sort of wink at me when I’ve done something right or thought of something stupendous. I wouldn’t call coming to the conclusion that you have a stinky attitude right now all that stupendous. Yes, I guess I could see that coming.

So, what do you want to talk about now?

How about your need to create these articles you wish. We suggested to you 2 days ago that you might concentrate upon the most numerous emailed requests you get from your readership.

That’s right. I forgot about that. The thing that makes me feel this is most worthwhile is being able to say to folks that their loved ones haven’t just ceased to exist. That there is stuff to do after death and that folks are happy. Also that they don’t miss us horribly and things like that.

Yes, and you might mention no one has any remorse about anything either.

So, what happens to somebody who is a serial killer? What about people like that?

What about them?

Well, isn’t there any justice?

Of course there is justice. They will likely be the victim of someone’s murderous rages for many lifetimes into the future. You would think in balancing things that it goes tit for tat. It doesn’t. The bad things a person does in this lifetime can be multiplied a hundred fold to balance out eventually far into the future. So, for a string of murders in this lifetime a person can expect to be killed ten times for each person they murdered. This is a rough estimate, but you get the idea. Sometimes it takes people a long time to learn.

Well, what about if they are caught and put into prison? Sorry, that won’t wash as part of Karmic justice. That’s justice for humans. There is soul justice and that memory is a very, very long time.

What if some killer reads this and figures if he’s never going to get out of hot water he might just as well continue on. That’s his problem, isn’t it? We would think anyone who has a lick of common sense would begin to think of the consequences of their actions and begin to think they shouldn’t be doing that anymore. Additionally, when they die they will experience exactly what they did to their victims. Exactly. So, if they were to know that perhaps fear might make them stop. This isn’t just Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates directing traffic. This is their own personal judgment day.

Hey, thanks. You are quite welcome. Our blessings to each and every one of you.

Where I Do a Reading - About Getting Married

I got an email the other day. The person said they were curious and needed to know a quick answer to their questions. They wanted to know when and who they were going to marry.

Well, my first inclination was just not to respond to the email. I may be a psychic, but I’m not that kind of psychic. I don’t do fortunetelling. I’m a channel. I trance out and the Guides talk about stuff. They generally don’t consider those types of questions to be worthy of any sort of answer, at least, that’s what they’ve done with me for years. So, based on what we’ve done in the past with those same sorts of questions I figured we’d get the same sort of thing going with this one and I didn’t even want to try. Seth told me once he wasn’t a nickelodeon I could feed with nickels to get answers out of him. I stood, the chela, chastened, but more knowing than I had been 3 minutes before he said that.

That, and I really wouldn’t trust my own channeling on issues like that.

However, I’ve been thinking about it. And, figured I’d give it a go anyway.

I will email the person, but I will also be posting this. First, because I just know in my bones that it’s going to be interesting. I also know it’s not what this person will be expecting to hear and certainly not something they’d want to pay $75 for which is what I used to charge for readings before I stopped doing them.

So, here we go. What follows are the Guides talking:

In this, we would take the time to say we are pleased to be here. We are also equally pleased to answer what you, Pauline, seem to consider an annoying sort of question. You must remember that people the world over would ask the same question and with as much feeling as your reader. They took the time to ask you a question. We, then, with your permission, will take the time to answer it.

This is like watching a pot boil. The longer you watch it, the more intently you concentrate the focus of your attention on the steam that is just now beginning to curl up from the pot, the longer it is going to take to boil. Our advice would be to stop worrying about it.

Marriage is a gamble even in the most informed circumstances. The best bet you have to make a long, lasting and fulfilling contract with another person (and this goes whether you are heterosexual or homosexual) is to love yourself first. Be clear in the things you like and dislike. This does not mean that you become an opinionated and boorish sort of individual. This means that you are clear in your mind and heart. You are not immaturely wishing for Clark Kent to swoop into your living room, hook an arm about your waist and carry you off into the wild blue yonder.

Do fulfilling things for yourself; interests that you enjoy. Get involved with things that you like to do. If you like crowds and are a gregarious sort of person then join up with groups of people who share like interests.

Reach out to other people. It is difficult to meet and get to know people if you hide away in your apartment or house most of the time.

Do not put yourself into dangerous positions and engage in random drinking sessions or drug use. Do not engage in promiscuous behavior. And, if you are doing these things now smarten up and figure out why you are doing them. This is where being a mature individual steps into the picture and where you do some emotional healing and begin to sort things out. Honor yourself, your mind, your heart and your body.

The more clear you are psychologically, the more mature you are, the more grown up you are the greater is the likelihood of you being able to recognize a person you would be happy with for the rest of your life.

That person will not be the most beautiful or handsome person in the world. That person is not going to have the best manners you’ve ever seen. There will be something about that person that reaches out to you and snags onto a piece of your heart. If you are in a good place as far as your own psychological and emotional development goes the likelihood of you being able to commit to a long term relationship with another person is greater.

What also certainly comes into play here is that you become less selfish. If you think that your future significant other is there to serve your interests for the rest of your life you will likely be looking at 3 divorces before you are 54 years old. If you can open your heart to another, take what you need, give what they want, let the little irritating things of life fly by quickly, learn from everything around you all the time you’ve got a good chance for an interesting and happy life.

People may speak of falling in love a great deal. That is only the first step. You fall into infatuation. Love is a conscious act that is practiced over and over again. You might be a shit for a few years while you are trying to cope with painful and frightening health issues, but your husband is understanding and is there to support you through the entire journey of your life together. Love stretches. Love never stops. You can be mad at your significant other but love never stops.

And, please remember that as you continue to grow and mature through the course of your life so too will your significant other. Love is being willing to love the other person 25 years down the road when neither one of you is the same person you were when you first met.

But, you can’t watch the pot boil.

So, our advice would be to get your own house in order. Prepare yourself for the future by growing up. Don’t stop your life waiting for Mr. or Mrs. Wonderful. They will be there for you when you are ready for them.

Our blessings, and we hope that this information will have helped both the reader who wrote and to anyone else who hasn’t had a date in 3 years.

Finding Your Soul in the Spirituality Maze

Inevitably, it happens that you will come across a book that has the ability to change your life.

“Finding Your Soul in the Spirituality Maze” by Thayer White is one of those books.

Thayer, who I have had the honor of calling friend for close to 15 years, is a psychotherapist and a pioneer in the field of New Age spirituality. If you are to invest time, money and attention in each and every one of the New Age schools of thought that have sprung up and continue to spring up you would be, quite understandably, confused and feeling lost in this maze. Thayer has zeroed in on a path that can help you make intelligent decisions about where to invest your attention to the maximum benefit in the development of your own spirituality.

ASHEVILLE NC, August 4, 2008. “The Law of Attraction usually fails folks,” claims New Age author and therapist, Thayer White, in his new book, Finding Your Soul in the Spirituality Maze. “If the Law worked at all well, every city block in Europe and North America would have a few new millionaires by now. There would be Law of Attraction support clinics everywhere curing high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and genetic disorders. The obese would be shrinking.” Available with book purchase is a free bonus audio of Thayer describing why the Law of Attraction usually fails folks. Find out more about the book and special free bonuses.

There is a school of thought that states if you don’t learn a lesson completely in this lifetime you can always spend time with it in your next lifetime. In some instances a person might be inclined to make more inroads and progress on whatever difficult life-lesson they’ve got facing them this time around rather than be faced with more of the same in their next incarnation.

But, the quest for your own spirituality is one of those life-lessons that happens to each and every person in every one of their lifetimes. This is one of the most important lessons and the more progress you make with it the richer your life might be in every one of your incarnations. This is an investment you can make for yourself that has dividends that will continue to pay off, life after life after life.

Here is an excerpt from, "Finding Your Soul in the Spiritualizy Maze - The Path of Non-Attachment"

The pattern of fewer and fewer attachments I call the path of non-attachment. This happens to a more-or-less degree with old souls, with those who are getting old physically, with those who find enlightenment and with those pursuing deeper psychological paths. Folks on the path of non-attachment are moving beyond many of the cyclic patterns, finding themselves dropping many attachments and not replacing them.

It is useful to understand the naturalness of this process. If you are aware of an attachment, it does no good to try to drop it. If you learn the lesson(s) involved with that attachment, then it will drop of its own accord with no effort on your part. What can be beneficial is to become aware of the attachment, to look for the lesson(s) involved and to try to learn the lesson(s). If this is an old pattern of attachment for you, then it may help to ask yourself if you really need that attachment.

For example, assume that your car history has been jalopy, subcompact, mid-size and Cadillac. It may be helpful to ask yourself if you really want the Ferrari about which you have been fantasizing. If there is importance or excitement associated with the Ferrari, then you still are attached and may need to get it. If you are able to eliminate the importance and the excitement by self-change or therapy, then you will have no desire for a Ferrari.”

Visit Thayer White's website at http://www.thayerwhite.com/ for more information.

Captain Jack

We had to put one of our cats to sleep yesterday. Captain Jack was very sick. He was closest to my husband though he warmed up to me in his last few weeks. When he first came to us some six months ago he was totally feral. I’d never had a cat in the house who refused to have anything to do with us and yet wanted us to take care of him.

At meal times we’d put 6 bowls out. Captain Jack got the most because he was the skinniest. Food went right through him. He just couldn’t get any nutrition from what he ate. But, he’d chow down on his food and then systematically push the other cats away from their bowls. They never said a word. They’d just stand aside and let Jack have whatever he wanted to eat. I always thought they knew he was a special needs cat and allowed him those special privileges.

Towards the end he slept a lot. He used to sleep in late every morning. The other cats would be up and walking around but Jack still lay curled up in DeeDude’s chair or on his computer desk.

We bought the expensive food for Jack. A can here and there extra just because.

God, he was so skinny. I picked him up off of the counter the other day and I almost cried at how skinny he was. I could feel every rib. He was so fragile at that point.

We’d told each other that the first time he allowed us to touch him we’d take him to the vets. And, so yesterday DeeDude took him. And, didn’t bring him back. The vet said he weighed less than half of what he should. She said he had a mass on his intestines and that’s why he wasn’t holding onto anything he ate. He only had one working kidney. She said she thought he was in terrible pain all the time.

We did the merciful thing. DeeDude held him while Jack went to sleep for the last time. I’m still crying. I know he’s okay now. I’m a psychic. But, it still hurts. Bye Jack.

Saturday Afternoon at the Street Fair

DeeDude and I wandered down to the Laurel Village Street Fair this afternoon. He spent some time at the Laurel Book Store Booth talking to customers and signing his two books, Oakland's Laurel District and Moutain View Cemetary. I visited all the vendors.

I stopped by a booth for International Sanctuary that had pretty jewelry on display. I bought these earrings. The card the earrings came on were signed by the person who made them. She is a rescued sex trade worker.

Information on the back of the card that held my earrings: "This item was hand-crafted in India by a survivor of sexual exploitation. No longer a victim enslaved in the flesh trade, she is now able to go to school, receive vocational training and live in freedom. Your purchase of this product is helping her to build a brighter future. International Sanctuary is a non-profit organization that empowers survivors of human trafficking with social-enterprising opportunities."

I also bought two cat pencils. Figured they might prove inspirational to either us or the cats or, perhaps to both.

I picked up a jar of shea nut butter. They were giving out samples and it felt wonderful on my hands. This is called Ah Shayh and is also available online.

And, although I didn't purchase anything from the Senses and Scents booth I did have a sniff of some very nice candles. Promised them a link online, so here it is. They are local in Oakland, though they are only selling online at at fairs.

Chair Ahoy

Well, that wasn’t the brightest thing I’ve done lately. I tried to repair my chair. The hydraulic lift went out on it some time ago and I’ve been putting up with the ding donged thing hoiking up fast and falling like a freight elevator other times. Found the manufacturer (since Office Depot no longer carries the chair and doesn’t want to honor their lifetime warranty since I’ve long since misplaced the receipt) and they assured me that for $17.50 I could purchase a new hydraulic. They were a bit vague about putting it on but assured me it wasn’t that difficult.

I should have tapped into my awesome psychic powers at that point and avoided what happened tonight.

So, the hydraulic came today. No instructions. I looked online and found other people in similar positions and printed out some of the discussions about fixing your own chair.

I did get the base off with a few well placed hammer hits. I was unable to withdraw the broken hydraulic. I pounded on that sucker with mighty effort. Tried chisels and screwdrivers and sweated a lot. Even took the hydraulic apart. (Note: Wear safety glasses.) Nothing worked.

Stood there, arms akimbo, having a hot flash considering the mess on my study floor. Put it back together again.

Except, now this piece is poking out from the hydraulic and won’t go back in again. So, I’m sort of teetering on what before was a pretty stable office chair. Can’t wheel it around anymore since the piece poking out is longer than the base. Wonderful.

Okay….took time out for a popsicle and to think about it. Took it apart again and found an extra piece inside the cover….put that on and now it’s back together again good as new...sort of.

What I'll do is take the new hydraulic lift to work and see if any of our guys can fix one of the chairs in the office with a similar problem. They actually did fix one some time ago. I remember them telling me it was a horrible job. I can see why.

"Duma Key" by Stephen King

It’s funny, but the best teachers you get in life probably aren’t even aware that they’re helping you out. Or, maybe that old saying really is true that when the student is ready the teacher will appear. Except, maybe the teacher is totally unaware of what they’re doing.

Case in point: I just finished reading Stephen King’s new book, “Duma Key". But, already something is happening. For instance, in the book our hero, Edgar Freemantal, was once upon a time a very successful building contractor and is now a sad and mangled man. He caught the roughside of a large piece of construction machinery with no back up meep meeps going on to warn him that it was coming his way. Mashed him up pretty bad. Sort of rewired his head too. But, now his missing right arm itches like the dickens at times. Sometimes it burns. A hint of what the phantom limb experience might be that we’ve all heard about before. Except, here starts the Stephen King magic and where the best lies, loosely couched in truth, are my own personal lessons on how to be a better psychic.

What first thrilled me to see was the bit about how in the beginning of the burning, itching of the missing limb what relieved it was a stint at drawing and painting. Our hero comes away from these artistic rushes of madness absolutely ravenous. Same thing happened to me early on in my channeling days after a session. You couldn’t stop me I was that hungry. Now, I realize it was my own eating disorder rearing its head and providing me with a bit of comfort after a particularly strenuous and stressful experience. I remember hearing of other channels who spoke of this odd phenomena and routinely advised others who were channeling to have a glass of orange juice after a channeling session. There were also those who tried to explain away their own obese bodies on the same thing. I am not buying into any of that, but do remember there were times when I felt that ravenous hunger. Did I think it was a result of having the intense psychic energies flowing through my, as yet not accustomed to psychic energy body? Well, I did in the beginning, but I don’t now. Could have been any sort of new to me energy that would result in the ravenous raids on whatever wasn’t tied down in the kitchen. However, King picked up on it and I stand here pretty impressed that he did. It was just a small thing, but it was truth. I've just written a review of the book on my book blog.

I’m a fan of Stephen King, though I didn’t come to be until I was an adult. Up until then I had shied away from anything Stephen King had written or shown upon the silver screen. King? No way Jose. What happened so many years ago was I read, “The Stand”. Within the year I’d read mostly every novel he’d written up to that point. I’d also become psychic. I tell people I over-dosed on Stephen King books. But, that nice and tidy side effect aside, the man can write. I stand in awe of how he is able to reach out, grasp the points I would have normally missed, tossed it all around and come up with a good book.

He did it again.

Where The Hell Is Matt?

This never fails to lift my spirits. I hope it does the same for you.

A Story

I don’t talk about this very often. There are pages at my other sites, static pages, pages that are done, where the information has been set out. But, folks don’t go there very often and I figure that maybe, just maybe you’d like to hear a story today.

I was normal up until the time I turned 35. It was during that year that I’d quit my job and declared myself to be a writer. No more secretarial work for me. No, siree. I’d spent the last 3 years hammering out a three-hanky tear jerker, swash-buckling, romance, fantasy novel. No way I could go back to being a 9 to 5 secretary after I’d finally done that. I would continue to write. On a new project. A brand new book. I was off and running and nobody could stop me now.

Right. I got a major case of instant writer’s block. It was sort of frightening because the job was long gone and I wasn’t doing much. Then, circumstances changed a bit and I got sick. I mean I don’t remember being this sick. It was the summer cold to end all summer colds. I was coughing and snorting and feverish and plumb totally miserable. Did I go to the doctor? No. It was just a cold. But, I was really disturbing my husband’s sleep. Also, my sleep patterns were all screwed up. I dozed and slept during the day and at night I was all restless and making noise. So, I moved my operations out to the living room sofa at night so he could sleep and continue to report for duty at the job he still had.

I got tired of watching tv. I hadn’t watched daytime tv in 20 years and I got my fill of it again. What to do now? I had writer’s block and I was sick and tired of tv. I was sort of on the mend by that time. I guess it was a week into my sick. But, I still felt pretty miserable. I wanted to read something.

I decided to go to the library and pick up some Stephen King books. I’d only read the one, “The Stand” a few months before. I liked it so much I read it in 3 days over a weekend. I’d never read any Stephen King before that. I’d just been plain scared. Didn’t watch his movies and didn’t read his books. No, siree. Too scary for me.

But, I’d loved, “The Stand”. That sucker weighs 5 pounds. It’s a big book. It took him twelve years to write and this is a guy who can churn out a book a year. I was in love.

So, I went to the library. I had to ride the bus because we only had the one car and my husband had taken it to go to work. I tried not to pass my cold onto anybody else. I covered my mouth and turned my head when I felt a coughing fit come on. I tried not to even look at anybody. I swept the shelves at the library of books by Stephen King. As much as I could carry. It must have been 6 or 7 of them.

And, a week later I was back for more. He’s written so much that finding that many more books by him wasn’t too hard to do. He’s a prolific writer. He’s a successful writer. He’s a very, very good writer.

And, a week later I was back for more.

I over dosed on books by Stephen King. I remember the first thing that happened was I saw the numbers 222 on the microwave. The first time I saw it I didn’t think too much of it. It was sort of interesting to see three numbers in a sequence like that. The second time was a little unsettling. The third time and I started getting freaked out. In the years that have come and gone since I was 35 (I’m 53 at the time of this writing) I have seen 222 many times. A day doesn’t go by and I notice it somewhere. I don’t read a book, not one book that my eyes don’t fly to the page number as I light on page 222. But, back to when it first started happening? I remember going to the grocery store and writing a check for $22.22. I remember the microwave. I called my sister to tell her about it. She called me back the next day to tell me after we’d talked she’d gone to her bank and looked up at the revolving sign that has the time on one side and the temperature on the other: 2:22.

The next thing that happened was I began having really, really vivid waking dreams. Oh, shit it was so real. The next book I was going to read was, “It”, the one with the terrible clown. I hadn’t started it yet. But, it was going to be the next one. Here’s the vision I had. I was laying on the couch not doing much of anything. Sort of doing the doze thing drifting in and out. I was not completely asleep. It was a semi sleep sort of thing. Suddenly, I’m at the front window. I’ve parted the curtains and I’m looking down our steps. Up comes this really tall, really scary guy with a fucking jack-o-lantern for a head. I jerked right wide awake.

Then, there was another vision with me looking down those same steps watching a young woman make her way up them. She’s holding onto the railing with both hands, doing one of those hand over hand movements because she’s afraid to let go. She’s dressed nicely, in a neat grey suit. She’s wearing a skirt. She looks up at me as she nears the top of the flight of steps and smiles at me. I wake up.

By now I’ve freaked. I go back to the library and start looking up ESP. Colin Wilson wrote a really thick book about it. I fan through it to find the part where he’s saying ESP is natural. ESP is normal. ESP is not something you need to be afraid of.

When we were kids we all were delightedly spooked by things ESP. Now, here as an adult I’m worried about it.

So, my journey had started. This happened and that happened and I began to read about inner journeys. I began to journal. I began to read books written by people who were channeling. Seth was one of them. I’d actually read the first Seth book, "Seth Speaks" when I was in high school and been fascinated by it. I read it again. I got into the, “Messages from Michael” books. I read, “The Magic of Findhorn”. I started, “A Course in Miracles”. I found, “Creating Money” on our bookshelf. Actually, my husband had purchased both of those books years before for himself. Now, I was reading them. But, from “Creating Money” I went on to “Opening to Channel” by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer. That’s when the ball really started rolling down the hill.

I decided that I wanted to learn how to channel. I kept at it for a very long time. I was terrible at the exercises. I couldn’t visualize worth a crap. I couldn’t concentrate to meditate. I just didn’t seem to be able to do anything. But, I kept at it. Then, I thought to myself that I’d try something that wasn’t really recommended in the book. I’d try working a Ouija board. Who to do it with me? Who else, but my husband. And, for pity sake it worked. The planchette zoomed all over the board. We asked if this was my guide. Nope. It was DeeDude’s guide. What???? I was the one who was seeking my guide. I was the one who’d been trying for so long to make ding-donged contact with my guide and we get my husband’s guide? What’s up with that?

So, I can live with that. I couldn’t get enough of being on the board to talk to my husband’s guide. But, then, my husband doesn’t want to do it anymore. Accckkkk! What do you mean you don’t want to do it anymore? I can’t do this by myself.

Nope, doesn’t want to do it anymore. His guide doesn’t want to talk to us anymore.

Oh, shit. So, I give up. I can’t ask my neighbor to help. What would he think of me? I can’t do it myself. I go back to the blankty-blank exercises in, “Opening to Channel” that’s I’m no good at anyway. Nothing happens. Zippo. I’m getting disgusted.

It occurs to me, out of the blue one day, that maybe I can do the Ouija board by myself. That’s how they did it in, “Messages from Michael”. The channel would sit in a rocking chair by themselves with a board in their lap. Somebody off to the side would take dictation and write down what was being spelled out. If they could do it, I could too. I have in the years since found those words to be particularly magical for me: If they can do it, so can I.

Nothing happened. I would sit and wait with the planchette on the board and nothing happened. I’d pray. I’d try to meditate. I’d concentrate. Nothing happened.

I used to drag my hand around with my other hand to see what it would be like when it finally happened, just so I wouldn’t miss anything. Sort of like when you were 9 and you’d kiss your arm to see what it would feel like to actually kiss a boy on the lips.

I’d continued on with reading, “Opening to Channel” I do have to say that I did finally meet my guide. It was the Meet Your Guide exercise. You close your eyes and imagine that you’re walking on a path. Picture the path in your mind’s eye. What’s going on directly under your feet? What’s growing at the side of the path? Look ahead of you. See an obstacle (I saw a huge rock). Make your way past the obstacle (I went around it). Continue your walk. Look ahead. The path moves up on an incline. You see a gate or an opening way, way down the road. Move forward, move towards it. It was at this point in my own journey that I turned into a swallow and soared in the sky. It was pretty exhilarating. I flew past these huge humped green mountainous hills like you see in Hawaii. As I got to the gate I turned back into myself and thumped down on the ground. I looked through and saw this guy in a toga with his back to me. He was bent over doing something in a garden. There was a low stone wall there. He turned to me. Balder than a cue ball he was, but he smiled at me. He held out his hands to me and I couldn’t take my eyes off of his face. He had such a glorious smile. Then, I startled myself awake. I combed the internet looking for those green hills in Hawaii that I saw in my vision and the closest I could get was Molokai at Hawaii Pictures. It's still not quite what I saw. Mine where like green thumbs sticking up into the air. Lots of them with their sides practically vertical and covered with green. But, this picture is close.

Anyway, I practiced using the Oujia board by myself. That took 6 months. Six months of nothing happening. At the end of it I decided that I’d been wasting my time. I remember that night: I said to myself that I needed to get back to writing again. I’d been neglecting it so. But, to hedge my bets I decided to squeeze the keyboard over and put the Ouija board on the desk alongside. My left hand, my non-dominant hand could rest on the Ouija board and my right hand could do all the typing. I was a good typist. I knew where all the keys were. I could do this with one hand. So, I did. I began typing. It was certainly slower than if I were using two hands, but the thoughts were flowing. I was writing again.

My hand that was on the Ouija board zoomed. The planchette fell on the floor. I was absolutely shocked. What???? What????

I got the planchette back and set the board up and using my left hand put it back on the board. It spelled out: Seth. I asked the question, are you my guide? I got a yes. I asked the question are you the same Seth from Jane Roberts? I got a yes. After that it was just gobble gook. Just garbage. The planchette meandered all over the board. Didn’t spell anything out that I could tell. Just moved all over the place. I was thrilled. I was exhausted.

Now, a year and a half has passed since I’d quit my job. But, in November they’d called me to come back. The lady we’d hired to take my place had given two weeks notice. Now, it was February. Lots had happened since then. My husband had broken his back in January and was laid up. I was frantic. The bills were piling up. Our situation was a mess. But, I did have a job. So, I went to work the next day. When I got home the first thing I did was set up the Ouija board and we were able to talk some. It wasn’t all garbage like the day before.

Turns out I guess they were getting me ready, or used to it or something. Anyway, as time went on things got a lot faster using the Ouija board to talk to Seth. It would just zoom and zip so quickly over the board. People couldn’t read what was being said it moved so quickly. I began to anticipate what was going to be said even before the planchette hit those letters.

That’s when I said to myself that I’d gone crazy. And, that’s when my guide said to me, in my head, in my ears so that I could hear him for the first time, “Go outside. I have something important to say to you.” It was noisy in the house. The television was going. Lots of background noise. I stepped out onto the porch and Seth said, “You can hear me now.”

It was a week and a half, ten days after I’d first gotten the Ouija board to work. That was Feb 12th. So, now it was Feb 22nd. 2/22 for those folks out there remembering that this whole thing began with me seeing 222’s everywhere.

It’s been 16 years gone since that time. I’m a channel. I no longer hear the guides and Folk in Spirit through my ears. It’s a telepathic sort of thing. I can say that I talk to dead people. I also teach people to channel.

What brought this on? I just picked up Stephen Kings, “Duma Key” from the library yesterday. Big fat book. I can hardly wait.

How to Get a Move On

Inspiration and opportunities are all around you. If you’re sitting there waiting for the big opportunity or idea to hit you might be in for a long wait. What you have to do is to sit there like a catcher. You’ve got to be ready for the opportunity or idea. You need to seek a place where you are tuned into the idea of being able and open to catch an idea as it floats by.

There are different ways that you can be prepared. First you can be healthy, or, at least relatively healthy. You can be sure to be getting enough sleep. You can limit your use of alcoholic drinks and you can stop doing drugs right now. If you believe that a drug induced high is what you need in order to be brilliant let me disabuse you of that idea. It won’t work. So, quit doing the drugs and get some therapy and try to find a normalcy in your life. Then, open yourself up for creativity and ideas to flow more easily. If you are smoking stop doing that too. Add another 7 years to your life right now. Quit smoking.

If you find that you are too highly strung to relax you can practice being relaxed. Try to meditate. Just take a really deep breath and blow it all out. As you exhale imagine that you have attached little bits and pieces of stress and tension to the breath as it is exiting your body. Imagine that toxic laden breath moving out into the air and attaching itself to the nearest tree where it will be absorbed into a living thing that doesn’t have as many hang-ups as you do and will be converted into life force energies that will come back to you and others. It’s a cycle.

I have never been a believer in the one fix all solution. I think it’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that which over time come to smooth out our rough edges and allow us to do the things we’d like to be doing.

Another thing that you can do is eat right. Our bodies are full of a lot of junk food. Granted, it all tastes really good, but over the years you’ve become dependent upon it. It’s sort of like being addicted to cigarettes. Pull those smokes away suddenly and you’re going to be one really sick and cranky person. Same thing with all your junk food. Start by adding healthy stuff to your diet and crowd the junk food out. If you generally eat lunch out 5 days a week see if you can’t select something healthier from the menu. If you want to save some money start taking your lunch to work. Nowadays there are many people who are trying to save money. If you take your lunch to work, a salad with dressing on the side, some crackers for crunch and a piece of fruit and you’re going to save a lot of calories and a lot of money.

Smoky Skys

Am finally getting over my cold. Boy, but it lasted a long time. Our air is still full of smoke from all the fires burning in California. I just took a picture of a very red sun at 8:00 pm.

The Cat House on The Kings

This is Cat Heaven. http://www.cathouseonthekings.com/

And, unfortunately, the video was removed. But, the link is still there above if you'd like to go see their site. A tremendous job of work of fostering hundreds of cats.

In the meantime, I found Cat Clips a really great site. Sat here and watched them all. You can see the site at: Wizard of Wit Productions
This video is Treat Tactics. Just a hoot.

"Wild Orchids" by Jude Deveraux

For the last year or so I’ve been writing reviews about the books I’ve been reading. I just started a new one about an hour ago. Normally, I wouldn’t write about the book until after I was finished and would proceed onto the review, except, this is a good one. I have this gauge I use for books. If I cry a lot it’s a good book. I call them three hanky tearjerkers. And, if a book rates as a three hanky tearjerker I really, really liked it.

I’m on page 29. I think I started crying about page 5. It’s an on again, off again sort of crying, but I have to tell you, this is one really good book. “Wild Orchids” by Jude Deveraux. I don’t even have to wait for the end to recommend it. If you don’t have anything better to do go on down to the library and check it out. And, if you can’t find that particular one anything by Jude Deveraux will do. She’s written a bunch of them and I’m betting that her other stories are just as good as this one.

Post Note: I finished the book. It's fabulous. I wrote the review at my other blog.

Computers and Dead People

Sometimes I think computers are more complicated than talking to dead people. Actually, I think I must have some basic operating rules that apply to both how I approach computers and how I also relate to dead people.

It’s just a few rules.

Like with computers if it’s buzzing too loudly it needs to either be turned off or taken in for repair. Also, if it’s smoking turn it off. If it is being too slow on the internet then maybe your cache needs to be cleaned out. And, if your computer is powerful enough you can have several different programs on at the same time.

In regard to dead people you could have similar rules. I never went to school to learn these things, but then I never went to school to learn about computers either. It’s just what I’ve picked up along the way as I've talked to the dearly departed.

Folks who have died aren’t unhappy. They’re perfectly okay with having passed over. Heaven is a nice place. And, if you think they’ve done bad things in this life either to you personally or to somebody else rest assured that they will get what’s coming to them. It isn’t exactly Hell, but more along the lines of they get to experience what they handed out. They see and feel exactly how their actions affected everybody; man, animal, vegetable and mineral. There are cosmic rules of balance that ensure what goes around comes around and somebody who acted badly in this life will be real sorry next lifetime around. It’s actually a good incentive to shape up and live a good life this time around.

The other side isn’t exactly floating around on clouds and strumming harps. It’s interesting from what they tell me. Different levels according to where you’re at. Could be once you’ve passed over you’ll get another job. Might be more associated with the life that you just left too. Could be you help others who’ve just passed over. Some days it’s like Grand Central Station they tell me.

And, a final rule is that your loved ones who’ve passed over are aware of you. It’s not like they are at your elbow all the time, though it does happen, especially with mothers and kids, but when you think of them they hear those thoughts. Can’t do much about it, especially since you aren’t tuned in to hearing them, but you don’t need a medium or somebody else to tell your mother or husband who has passed over that you love them and you miss them lots. You can do that. Anytime, anywhere and however many times you want to. Just a passing thought and they heard you just fine.

Fiddling

Well, this is a bit of an experiment. I've created a new Amazon store. I'm looking to see if anybody has a crystal skull up for sale too. I've got a little one on my desk, but hey, the cat could take a liking to it and I'd never see it again. The one I want should be larger. And, as with any tool of diviniation I'd want to imprint it with my own vibrations. Except, one of the guides just said a Magic 8 ball would do just as well for me. Probably cheaper too. And, I've already got a bunch of them.

Saturday Morning

I find it interesting that whenever I can’t find anything to talk about something comes anyway. Could be because I am a sage in the Michael teachings. Could be because I’ve got a big mouth. But, in any case, the words mostly flow. Right now, though, I’m having trouble coming up with something for my monthly newsletter. Maybe I’m trying too hard. Maybe I just need to ease up a bit and focus in on some subjects that I think might be interesting to talk about. Give me a word or a topic and I can go to town on it.

Okay, with that in mind maybe I can start with te word apple. It’s typically the first word used to represent the first word of the alphabet. You could have other words that start with the letter, "A" and be the keyword picture holder. Like aardvark. Or Antithesis. Actually, I don’t know how to picture antithesis. What else would be a noun that would start with a? Arthritis. That’s a condition.

Okay, that’s enough paddling about. Now, I want to go somewhere. Where would somebody go who is interested in spirituality or in things of a psychic nature?

Well, I can remember before I stepped over the line and became obviously psychic; the things that worried me in those days.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I used to think God didn’t care. I talked to him a lot, but it was sort of like shouting down into a well or hollering off the edge of a cliff. Nothing happened and although I might have vented my spleen I didn’t feel that much better for long. There was this unending ache in my heart about God in those days. It lasted for years from the time I was a little girl until the time when I finally stepped over the edge and opened to my psychic nature. I just had this emptiness inside, this yearning that I just couldn’t put a finger on to explain exactly what it was but that would not go away.

I had always thought in terms of God being masculine. Also, old. With a beard. God without a beard just didn’t cut it. I still refer to God in the masculine and still sort of think of Him so, but there’s a part of me that has come away from that way of thinking to think of God in a different way. Gone is the little girl anxiousness that if I don’t do right retribution will be swift or sure. So, I’m not so worried these days.

Now, instead of the yearning for something when I pray, the wanting for God to fix something for me about whatever is wrong, nowadays I try to sink into bliss. The thought I hold in my mind is that I just want to hang out in that place where peace is, where bliss is, where joy is, where love is. It doesn’t always happen to me, but it’s what I set out to do. I don’t get upset if I don’t quite get there. I know when it laps around at my edges. Usually, my eyes fill with tears and my heart seems to get bigger. Something inside gets bigger and it isn’t my stomach. I feel it up higher in my chest. I figure it must be my heart.

And, if that’s the only thing that will ever happen to me again as far as developing along the lines of spirituality and my psychic nature I’ll be happy. I’ve got a place to go to eventually. It’s the place I came from once upon a time. It’s a place I’ve gone to many times before. It’s the place I’ll go to when I’m done here.

Dip

I can’t believe that a person would spend their life going about at the same pace. Just as in a day of 24 hours some of the time you spend during that time is spent asleep and dreaming, the rest of it is spent at your job whatever that might be work or school and the remainder doing what you like. For some people their days never seem to end and these are the ones with jobs where they are always on call like doctors and nurses or firefighters or mothers. But, that is just one day. For some it is busy for much of the time, for others not so busy. But, for all of us somewhere in that day there is time to somehow call your own. This is my time. I claim it now and will allow nothing to intrude. Let’s put it another way. I hope nothing intrudes.

I want to be more fully here right now as I write. I want to immerse myself even more than I normally do. Supposing that when I normally write I write as I would swim upon the surface of the water. Now, I want to dive. I want to open my eyes under the water. I want to writhe and twist and be weightless for just a moment in time. I want to be as I would be out of this body in another time and place as I would be with my soul.

How can I even be apart from my soul? I am my soul and my soul is me, yet I do not understand my soul. I glimpse it upon occasion and stand scratching my head at the imponderableness of it. It is as a mother to my 3 year old self. I imagine that it is calm. I imagine that it knows what is best for me. I imagine that it knows what is in store for me in a general sort of a way. I am blithely happy with my childhood and my world extends about 5 feet around me.

My world. I am happy in my world. And, then comes outside of my world where I see for the first time playmates and school and teachers and those who are not my family. I do not understand them. They frighten me. And, yet my soul knows what I will encounter in a general sort of way. And, is not afraid.

My soul that knows for a certainty that I survived and thrived 2,582 years ago. My soul that knows for a certainty that I have loved many times, many husbands, many wives, many children. My soul that knows for a certainty that I have been kind and generous and loving. My soul that knows for a certainty that I have killed and murdered and been a horrible shit. My soul that doesn’t care about any of that. My soul that knows I am busy right now with this life. My soul who knows I am a blithering idiot and loves me even for it.

And, sometimes I dip below the surface.

Where I Might Speak Out

One of the things I love about surfing are the interesting things people do with their blogs. This morning at Blog Explosion I noticed Cindy Swanson had put a really short audio intro to her site, Notes in the Key of Life, up near the top of her blog. It was only 30 seconds long, but I was absolutely entranced.

So, I’m thinking about doing something similar. In fact, yesterday I was looking at the statistics for my sites and saw that 4 people had listened recently to the one and only podcast I’d made for my Learn to Channel blog a year ago. That’s my own personal rule. One thing and I’m interested. Two instances of the universe pointing something out and I’m ready to do something about it. So, tomorrow I’ll spend some time cranking up the recorder and try to figure out something to say about all of this.

I remember back when I was having trouble with the editing part of the podcasts. I wanted to get some nice, soft background music going on that didn’t interfere with what I was saying. But, getting my voice to the proper volume was a problem and that’s where the project stalled. So, maybe this time I’ll do a bit better at it.

Fun Helping a Friend

So, I'm going to be helping a girlfriend bone up on some of the office skills she has but hasn't used in mandy years, come up to snuff on computer stuff and generally horse around on the internet and the computer. I think it will be fun. We'll have to get her an internet name. Will study on it and see what happens. Best that it comes from her, though, better that way. Like Dennis is DeeDude. And, like I'm Lady Skye Fyre. Will need to look over tutorials and things that are already available and see what might be useful. I know that there are tons of them at Microsoft.

Am also trying something out here with an ad from Amazon. It's supposed to showcase whatever is appropriate for this website.

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Before I Got Up

As I lay in bed this morning even before the sun had started coming up I began to think of people who’ve asked me to pray for them and who’ve asked for healing energy. I thought of one woman in particular who sent me two photographs of her little girl. Such a tiny little girl. I wondered what was wrong with her and if she’s doing any better. And, I began to think of the energy she asked me to send. I use the pretend method and hope that the person on the receiving end can use whatever comes their way.

I energize the Universe around me around them
I ask that my guides help
I ask for my thoughts to focus upon the task at hand
I ask for courage to do this
I ask for healing grace for myself that I can do this
The palms of my hands are before me, vertical with my body facing away toward the person, the people who have asked for healing energy
They grow hot
I have no idea whether the person in question was able to use the energy, to feel the energy, to see that the energy I have asked to be sent to them or whether any of this makes one blamed bit of difference.

I only do as they ask
These are my prayers.
And, for specific requests, for those I know are dealing with issues, for those who would like to ask for help and don’t know how or that they can, for all these I ask God’s grace and love in my prayers to you.

Working - How Rick Steves Does It

I’ve always enjoyed saying that I like to watch other people work. It’s a sort of a friendly jab at lazy folk everywhere and at myself when I don’t sense I'm in a particularly productive mode. However, I do enjoy watching folks work just for the sheer joy of it. I just finished watching Rick Steves and his camera and production crew of 2 walk through the part you don’t see in an episode of travelogue. It isn’t effortless; though it does appear always as if he is having the best of times doing what he does walking all about Europe visiting the touristy places I just can’t get to. The man, according to his crew, is the Ever Ready Bunny. After a long and tiring day when the crew has retired in exhaustion Rick stays up late in his hotel room re-writing the script they will be using the next day.

So, why am I talking about this now? It’s because I admire the way he works. I admire the tirelessness of it, the way the creative muse he needs is there for him right when he wants it to be. And, of course, I want that for myself too. So, there is a reason I like to watch people work. Though I have to say it was more from amusement than anything else that I watched 5 guys studying another guy digging a hole once. But, I do enjoy also the enthusiasm people show when they are doing something they are interested in, something they are passionate about. That’s my motivation.

Elvis

From Smile Box

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Spiritual Singles

Opening a magazine at random never fails to amuse me. Anyway, I did that to the April, May & June, 2008, issue of Open Exchange Magazine. They call themselves the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area’s healthy living magazine. You can always find something really interesting there. The article on page 76 I saw was about manifesting your mate and was written by Jill Crosby who is the owner and founder of SpiritualSingles.com. You can see the longer version of her article here at OpenExchange.com. But, immediately, I am intrigued. Not that I’m looking for a mate, I’ve already got DeeDude, but I’m thinking of all those dating and singles places that are always wanting to exchange links with me and I rarely do it because I’m not that convinced there are that many great places out there.

I just got a gut feeling about this place. So, I signed up as an affiliate. I’d already determined that I wanted to put a link for them on my sites, but how much even better is it to be an affiliate? Well, they’ve got some pretty banners. And, if anybody buys a membership from them they are very generous to me. Just a win-win situation.

What’s especially cool is they are not limited to the San Francisco Bay Area. They’re all over the place, and serve the internet community…which is all over. But, can you imagine? If you were Wiccan or a channel like me, or just more spiritually minded than you were once upon a time, this could very well be the place for you.

I like what Jill says in the article I read that getting love starts with you. You are the one who creates the flow of love energy moving towards yourself. It doesn’t start from without. It starts from within.

Prayer

When you pray do you have the same prayers that you pray again and again? I love saying the Hail Mary. I’m happy as a clam saying it 10 times in the car coming home from work. One of the guides just said that was a decade. I should get out my rosary and just do that. I find comfort in saying that particular prayer. Sometimes I even imagine Mary and think of her as a sort of intermediary from me to her son Jesus or to God, sort of like in the old days when I was growing up.

Then, there are other times when I whine a lot. Oh, please…oh, please….oh, please. Well, maybe it isn’t whining, but there’s an awful lot of it.

But, have you thought about just having a conversation with God? Or, if you’re more comfortable with a prayer you could make one up yourself rather than saying the same one you’ve been saying for years.

Here’s my method…or, just one that I use. I start by taking a really deep breath. I’m not concerned about anything other than taking that breath. Sometimes I have to do it more than once. Then, I imagine my body getting quiet. There’s always a lot of busy work going on. The body has all of its normal things to do anyway…breathing, blood circulating, digestion going on, filtering things, brain activity…stuff like that. I don’t mind that continuing. What I’m sort of concentrating on is the stress and tension I seem to carry with me no matter what. I sort of make a promise to myself that whatever leaves for now can always come back later again if it needs to. Somehow making that deal with myself enables me to have a few moments of peace. It’s like I trick myself. But, hey, it works. What can I say? So, this is the stage I set.

Now, I remember that Spirit is all around me. God isn’t up there, or out there, or far away from me. God is at my elbow. When I was a kid I always imagined God to be sort of like Santa Claus, except he wasn’t as fat and he didn’t laugh as much, but he was an older, white haired guy. Those memories still sort of come back to me at times, but mostly now when I do this quieting down God at my elbow move I tend to imagine God as being a cloud of peace, a cushiony, enveloping place where when I enter I dissolve into tears of relief. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s like walking into a comforting hug. Getting to this stage in the prayer saying business is almost enough for me sometimes. Sometimes I just stay here for a few moments and then I’m good to go for another while.

But, you can do more.

So, say you’re in the comforting area of Spirit. Now what can you do? Well, just be. Instead of it being you and It you can think along the lines of this is what you are. This is where you came from. This is where you will someday go back to again, this feeling of peace, this feeling of being one with something greater than yourself. Imagine this feeling that is beginning to wash over you as a condition of what life is like all the time for your higher self. This is the part of you that is in charge. It’s the directing traffic part of your being. Same as Spirit, but more a part of you like the freckles on your nose. The same part that was with you when you were a slave in Rome, when you were a soldier in World War I, when you were a tycoon during the dot.com bust.

I am not generally in close contact with my higher self all the time. First time I ever saw it during a meditation it was like 10 feet tall and scared the living daylights out of me. Very strange. Anyway, I know I’ve got one. I haven’t spent a lot of quality time with my higher self lately, but it never hurts to try to try to figure out what the hell it’s got scheduled for you so you don’t get hit with some surprising move out of left field. (One of the guides just said you can tell I haven’t had a lot of practice doing this….hey, I’m trying…I’m evolving…there might be a day when I can speak with more authority on this, but for now? It’s one toe forward into the dark just like everybody else…)

Okay, so you’re in the comforting place. You’ve just shaken hands and done the, “How do you do.” with your higher self. You’re rubbing elbows with God. Enjoy.

How about a bit of well wishing for friends and relatives? How about some healing work? Okay, so here’s where the imagining comes into play again.

Imagine that in this peaceful, Spirit filled, wonderfully calming place it is also filled with light, healing light. It’s everywhere. It’s like the sun coming up over the Smoky Mountains. It’s like the first rays that you see when the day is upon you. That’s the healing light. There might also be sounds associated with this healing energy, but however you imagine the healing part to be allow it to wash over you. Allow it to be in every cell of your being. Enjoy and wallow.

Now, start thinking of the people you generally say prayers for. Think of the folks in your life who are hurting. Think of how much better you feel now and sort of direct it all their way. Now, think of your relatives, your friends, the people who you care about. Now, think of the folks who irritate the hell out of you. Send some their way too. Now, think of the folks you meet on the internet and send some their way too. The idea of the healing energies is that they will use it or not. But, it can’t hurt to send it their way. Sometimes when the number of folks I’ve got grows large I think of them as, “My group”. In my mind they’re all standing together and the healing energy of Spirit, of the Universe just sort of goes their way and maybe it can help them over whatever bumps in the road they’ve got in their lives.

I don’t know if it works. I do it anyway. I do know years ago I was doing it and the next day one of the ladies I was sending energy to called me up complaining that I’d awakened her at four in the morning and don’t do that again. LOL.

By the way, your prayers are always heard. Maybe they aren’t answered quite the way you wanted, but they are always heard.

A very interesting website is World Prayers where you can spin a wheel and find a prayer to say or go in search of one. It's worth while checking it out. Also, I've got a prayer page at Talking to Spirit. And, while I was searching for a picture to illustrate this entry came upon some really wonderful instructions on how to make your own rosary.