February Card, Crystals and Flower Essence

Woohoo!  I’ve got a new video!  This is all about being joyful conscious creators of our future and the crystals and flower essences that can help.  Enjoy!

Heeding the Call: Personal Retreat from the Internet – Phase One Report

Last Wednesday I came down with one humdinger of a headache… again. That was my clue to finally stop resisting a much needed internet break. I had been feeling the need to get off-line and spend more time listening to my inner nudges for a few weeks and I kept resisting. In fact, I’d spend even more time online and that was when the headaches started setting in. Needless to say there were things that needed my attention and I was doing my version of sticking my fingers in my ears, squeezing my eyes shut and singing really loudly to not have to hear. Mature – eh?

So, now a week has gone by and I can tell I need more time. I’m taking a part of today to tend to several things that have been piling up in the inbox so that in another week I don’t feel completely overwhelmed when I come back into internet land. I can’t believe how much stuff can pile up in just a weeks time!

Not wanting to neglect my blog for quite so long I figured I better post something while I was at it. So here I am. What have I been up to in the past week of internet-free living? Oh my, where to start?

I’ve spent lots of time reading. I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho in one day. Quite an interesting little book that leaves you with lots to ponder. I’m working through a beautiful book, The Bluebird Effect by Julie Zickefoose, full of inspiring naturalist writing and art that I am just loving. I’ve been working through the latest copy of Yoga Journal. And I have been learning a ton about working with your moon sign and progressed moon  in Amy Herring’s book Astrology of the Moon – what a bunch of gems in that one!

I’m working on planning a vacation for my husband and I to the Othello and Crab Creek areas of central Washington – one of our favorite places for spring outings. Oh the birds and the sunshine and the smell of sagebrush!

I have been watching all the birds coming to enjoy the newly flowering ornamental plums in front of the house. Bushtits, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Hummingbirds, and House Finches to name just a few. The House Finches have been making it snow pink blossoms as they pull each one off, nibble the core, then let the rest float to the ground.

I’ve been enjoying all the new blooms that have been appearing over the last week as Spring begins to take hold more and more – Persephone has indeed begun her visiting! I spent one glorious couple of hours on a warm sunny day sitting on the porch journaling while being encased in the perfume of hundreds of Daphne blossoms from the plant next to my porch chair – pure bliss. I even got sun-kissed!

I’ve spent plenty of time enjoying my daily walks, letting them linger and then spending more time writing about them after I get back home. Just yesterday as I walked through Schmitz Park I was blessed by not one but two of Nature’s secrets being revealed – two different Anna’s Hummingbirds came buzzing by me and then landed in their respective nests. How sweet is that?! I can’t wait to watch as those nests start to hatch teeny tiny little baby hummers! Oh and nature is coming alive more and more as March takes hold. Salmonberries, Snowberries, and Red Elderberry are all beginning to leaf out. The forest floor is sprouting bleeding heart foliage and other fine greenery. The single clump of Trillium in the park are starting to pop up out of the ground. Oh and the bird song – beautiful! The Flickers are especially a delight to listen to as they chatter and call and drum – so full of enthusiasm!

I’ve spent more time with my daily yoga practice and spent a lot more time in meditation as well. I’ve been meditating with some new crystal treasures that came home with me this past weekend after visiting Gem Heaven for the first time – I can’t believe that I had not yet discovered this amazing shop in Pike Place Market! Jim, the owner, was so full of information, with detailed stories about where the stones came from – I was filled with lots of new info to digest after being there – it was indeed a Gem Heaven!

And I’ve had plenty of ups and downs as I work through some old stories that have risen again for further transformation and healing. I’ve been using writing, meditation, crystals and the tarot to help me work through all that a little at a time. Gently and with compassion as these are some difficult ones. The main reason I was resisting this time off line, most likely. It is so easy and tempting to hide away in internet land, filling your time and mind up to hide from your problems. I always know something is up when my computer time feels more like an addiction I can’t quit rather than a tool for connection, creativity and learning. Sometimes it just takes me longer to let go and face whatever needs to be faced… it’s always worth it though. And that’s why I’ll be taking another week offline after this brief interlude. I can feel there is still more to do. Still more to find healing and transformation in as well as finding balance again for going forward. I’ve got plans for more writing and for some art time, along with what I’ve already been doing – with lots of tree hugging and nature loving to keep me nurtured along the way! Till then – blessings and pink blossoms and sweet bird song to you all!

 

Chakra Energies Event – So Worth Sharing!

There’s an event going on right now that I am finding so full of good and helpful information that I really wanted to share it.

Tamara from Pura Vida Crystals  and Andy Valkyrie Divine from Of Divine Essence have started a series of blog posts and videos that dive into the details of our Chakra system, spending several days on each Chakra.  The information they have shared so far has been wonderful and incredibly helpful in so many ways.  I wanted to point anyone who may be interested to this great event.  There are lots of ways to connect and I’m posting the links below.  There’s also a lot of great conversation happening on the Facebook pages in response to all the information being shared.

This is all free and very much worth the time to read and watch. I hope that others will enjoy and benefit from it as much as I am!

Here are the links:

Chakra Energy Facebook Event Page

Pura Vida Crystals Website

Of Divine Essence Website

Pura Vida Crystals Facebook Page

Of Divine Essence Facebook Page

Andy Valkyrie Divine’s You Tube Channel

 

 

Yoga – Each Day I Begin

Yoga feels good.  It stretches me.  It strengthens me.  It breathes me.  It helps me become more connected with my body.  More connected with my breath.  More connected with my thoughts and emotions.  More connected with my spirit.  I feel different afterwards.  I feel new, refreshed, moved.  Rolling out my orange mat is a sacred time for me.  A time when I honor myself.  I honor myself just from rolling out that mat.  From chosing to begin, where ever I am.  Even if it’s just for a few poses right before bed, I have honored myself.  I committed to this practice, this daily practice, giving myself utter freedom, save I would do at least one pose a day.  One pose usually leads to another and the next thing I know I’ve spent 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes on my mat.  Sometimes I throw a video or CD on and go for an hour or more.  Sometimes I visit a studio.  Some days I take it outside.  I see those dark pitchy spots on the bottom of my mat as a positive reminder of combining two of my favorite things, the outdoors and yoga.  I know where that pitch came from.  I know which pine tree in the arboretum I rolled the mat out under so I could use it to support me in head stand.  I remember the scent of the grass and the warm pine needles and pitch.  I remember looking at the world upside down.  I’ve done my yoga standing on an enormous glacial erratic along a trail I hiked.  I’ve done my practice on Short Sands Beach, the sounds of waves and surfers nearby, my hands slipping a little deeper into the sand, challenging me in my flipped dog.    Some times my practice becomes a free form expression of movement, mixing up all the various forms of yoga and dance and martial arts that I have learned and practiced over the years.  It’s all good, this movement of me, in all its forms, in all its breathing, in all its manifestations of what it wishes to become in that moment that I begin.