It's been a rough couple of weeks.
Whether it's because you're feeling the unrest of the political world, or you're sensing the retrogrades of the planets, or you're going through challenges with your own personal journeys, whatever the reason, the bottom line is it's been a rough couple of weeks.

It has felt like I've been riding an emotional roller coaster for awhile now, and yesterday my body said "okay - enough is enough - you need to stop and rest." I am an advocate for telling people to listen to their bodies so I took my own advice. I cancelled my dinner obligation, I put on my pjs and rested. I gave myself a Reiki treatment, I smudged, I cleansed and rested some more. I woke up feeling refreshed and renewed.

Being an empath means we have a responsibility to take care of ourselves - yes, we are receptors to everyone and everything around us. Yes, we sense other's feelings and moods. Yes, we can detect energy good or uncomfortable, AND with that knowledge, we have a responsibility to be our own advocate for our own self-care and nurturing.

Here's some of my favorite tried and true ways to taking care of myself that I have discovered over the many years of my doing energy work:

Lavender = having fresh or dried lavender in the room. I also make a tea out of the dried lavender flowers, the same way you make regular tea. Boil the water, put the lavender in a loose leaf tea ball, steep for several minutes. Put the "tea" in the spray bottle and spray your room to clear the air of negative energies.
Selenite = Mother Nature's gift of a crystal that acts as a self-cleaning air freshener. It continually clears the air, transmuting negative energies into clean, fresh energy. Great to have with teenagers in the house. Also a great crystal to clear your oracle tools.
Smudge Sticks = my favorite smudge stick is white sage. It's the all purpose cleaning smudge stick. It is a strong scent, though. There are other choices in smudge sticks - it's a personal choice. What is important is your intention and your focus during the act of smudging. Set your intention, focus, breathe and smudge away.
Water = we can always benefit from drinking more water. Soak in a hot bath, take a hot shower, surrendering to the steam and relaxing, letting the stresses of the day release from you.
Sea Salt = whether you use a Sea Salt scrub, or salts for your bath, the Sea Salt will instantly help you to ground with Mother Earth, helping you to find your center again. I wash my hands every night with Sea Salt soap, asking my Angels to cut the negative cords that have accumulated throughout the day. When I need a boost, I use a tropical Sea Salt scrub - it's an extra boost of Sea Salt, and it's a special treat to my senses.

The final bottom line = It's our responsibility to take care of our self, no matter what anyone else brings into our vicinity. Take time out to care for yourself. Nurture yourself. Replenish and refresh while these planets are in retro-high gear!

Rising out of the muck ~

Out of the muck comes rich new growth.

Tentative at first, seemingly fragile, but graceful in its singularity.

Strong in it's conviction as we let what doesn't contribute to us, flow away with the current.

Establishing oneself takes courage to do it individually, and not the way everyone else accepts or expects.

Establishing a new "established".

Creating a new foundation.

That is what takes courage.

It is sometimes lonely, but I have found that this loneliness does not last because soon,
you find yourself with others who get it - who get you. 

And that takes trust, reminding yourself that this state of flux is temporary, too.

Here's to celebrating our muck and our new perspectives that it nourished. 

When a Medium Visits Pearl Harbor…

Visiting Pearl Harbor was a first for me. I knew it was something I wanted to do as a daughter of a Merchant Mariner, who as part of his tour of service, went to and from Hawaii and San Francisco. I still have a shell my dad picked up somewhere along the shoreline to bring back to my mom. As a medium, I didn’t know what to expect. I said my morning prayers and told Spirit, as I do every morning, I am willing to be of service. That morning, I just added one little addition “to anyone who may be in need of healing messages while at Pearl.” 

Energetic bubble donned, I was prepared to journey to Pearl Harbor. I didn’t know what to expect, so I left my expectations in my room.

Being a federal site, (it’s called a “park” – that just doesn’t feel right, though), they provide some history to help put the experience into perspective. I came away with an outlook that I didn’t expect – again, I left my expectations back at the hotel.

In the opening orientation of our tour, our young Hawaiian guide told a story about how a government bill was recently introduced to bring up the remaining oil from the belly of the sunken ship.  This bill was disbanded after protests from locals and military families, as it is believed that the oil drops that rise to the surface of the ocean represent the tears of the men who were trapped and died in the ship and it would be disrespectful to them. I personally watched several of these oil droplets rise to the surface and spread out in iridescent swirls.

 As we watched the newsreels and footage of the days leading up to December 7, 1941, I was struck at something so simple – the powers that be made their decision to attack because of their perception of the availability – or lack thereof - of the fossil fuel we call oil.

When we reached the memorial, I braced myself for communications from those who may be “stuck” there – and surprisingly, I found it quiet and peaceful.  It didn’t feel like anyone was “left behind”. Yes, there was a layer of the noise of that chaotic morning, I got a whiff of the burning, but I knew it was all just the residual energy that is kept alive by the retelling of their story to the visitors. 

I found a quiet corner in the room with all the names on the wall. As I scanned the list, I asked my Reiki channels to open and affirmed healing be sent to all those in need to release the fear and chaos of the time, to help them with clarity for understanding and to release the grips of grief that may still be lingering.  What I was shown, was almost like a timeline, of how the grief ripples through the generations, creating confusion, resentment, bitterness, sadness and fear for those who came afterward. I asked Spirit to bathe this timeline with healing light, too.  And while I was there, sending healing light to this generational timeline, I heard this:

A better way to honor them is by not repeating the same actions.

Honor them by respecting the Ocean.

Honor them by finding another way.

They have since moved on. We haven’t, as we continue to battle over fossil fuels, land and egos.

If we don’t become better stewards of this planet, we are not honoring their memory.  It is the desecration of all who have perished in the Earth’s Ocean by continuing to ignore our environmental blunders.  

I think that’s why the oil continues to rise to the surface, one drop at a time.

Meet Claude.  

He resides at one of my favorite places, the Steinhart Aquarium in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.  He and I had quite an encounter last June when I visited the newly renovated aquarium.  His new enclosure can be viewed from a balcony-type area (where I took this picture) and from a water-level area that gives everyone an up-close, eye-to-eye view.  

This was my first time visiting since the extensive renovation of my beloved aquarium and I was pleased to see a few things - like the seahorse railing - intact.  I can't begin to guess how many hours I spent as a little girl, with my face pressed up against those metal seahorses, looking down upon my buddies, the alligators.   You see, I lived across the street from the park and this was back in the day when your parents would tell you "go outside and play" and that meant "don't come back until it's dark" - and we did.  I had all of Golden Gate Park to explore and call my own - just me and my bike.  Besides, my family knew where to find me - eventually, I'd return to watch my friends, the alligators.

So, here I did return, after too many years and one huge renovation.  I preferred the balcony-view, so I stayed upstairs, reminiscing with my hubby, Larry.  The comments of the crowd downstairs floated up, as we enjoyed our view all by ourselves.  "Is he real?" "He hasn't moved in ages!" "Will he EVER move?"

I snapped the photo (above), put my camera/phone back in my purse and said to Claude "well, you COULD get in the water and surprise the hell out of them..." Larry looked at me and then at Claude - who, at that exact same moment, also looked up at me.  Gracefully as can be, Claude slid into the water, swam over to the glass and snapped his big ol' jaws, creating a splash in the water and a huge roar from the crowd below!  

Larry and I just laughed.  He said "So now I'm married to the Alligator Whisperer?".  We decided to go downstairs and get a glimpse of our new friend, Claude, from the water level.  As we made our way through the crowd and up to the glass, we heard a woman say "I wish there was an Alligator Whisperer around so we could find out what he was thinking just then!"

Alligators have been my totem since - well - always, probably.  Over the years I have learned what that meant:
(1)  Family is important.  They are good parents, caring for their own and the young of others in the pod.
(2) Community is important.  They are good stewards of the environment - as they create their nests, they are also creating watering holes for other animals to gather and drink. 
(3) Roll with life's circumstances, as they roll in the water with their prey.  
(4) Their medicine (message) is about integration = fully appreciating and integrating all that life offers to avoid getting stuck in the duality and quagmire of the human judgment game.

Thanks, Claude, for a magical experience ~ see you next time! 

Raven Funeral

Living in a pine forest in the mountains, I have witnessed many animal behaviors that I have thought to be strange and wondrous.  What the ravens shared with us that day was definitely high on that barometer.
 

It was the middle of a Spring day.  It was quiet in the neighborhood, the kids not home from school yet.  My dining room has a view of the cemetery across the street.  It’s the town cemetery that was established in the 1800s, so it’s been around longer than the houses on the road.  As I walked through the dining room to the kitchen, something caught my eye.  I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what I glimpsed outside.

A wave of glossy black, completely covering the road, was moving up the hill.  

I went outside, as quietly as I could, still not quite being able to grasp what I was seeing.  The roadway was covered in ravens, shoulder to shoulder, walking calmly and silently, together up the hill.  There were so many ravens, they filled the roadway from one side to the other.

I had to get a better look.  I quickly and as quietly as I could, went inside and then ran up the stairs to my mom’s apartment which has a deck overlooking the street and the cemetery.  I grabbed her on the way, wanting a witness and to make sure it was not a figment of my imagination.  We both stood there, our mouths agape (good…she saw them, too!)  We watched this wave of ravens marching to the top of the hill.  We tried to count them, but there were just too many.   We lost count around 40.  

As we watched, more ravens flew down, landed towards the back of the group and joined in the march upward. 

 

We must have stood there watching in silence for several minutes.  When the front of the group reached the top of the road, next to the end of the cemetery land, they spread their massive black wings and flew up towards the surrounding pine trees.  As the others reached the same spot, they too, flew up, some to join the first group in the trees, others just flew away.   Then, all of a sudden, as if by some invisible cue to the rest of the masses, they all flew away.   The sound they made as they took flight has stayed with both my mom and myself.   I believe we heard it with not only our physical ears, but with our soul ears, and felt it deep within our hearts.

After all the ravens were gone and the roadway was once again, a normal country road, my mom turned to me and said “I think we just witnessed a Raven funeral.”  That was what came to my mind, too. 

 

We’ve lived in our house for 24 winters now.  We have never seen anything like that again.   

We have never forgotten, either.

Raven in Weaverville Joss House Tree, photographer: Paula Masterman 

 I have a challenge for you, that is, if you are brave enough to try it...

The Dandelion - the little yellow flower that most think of as a weed that spoils the green carpet of their lawn.  I think of them as something quite different - Mother Nature's solution to unhealthy soil.  That's the irony.  If Dandelion has shown up in your yard, it's because the soil needs repairing.  Yet, most people, when they see Dandelion, pour chemicals on them to destroy them, hoping to "fix" their green lawn, when all they are doing is damaging their soil - and calling more Dandelions to appear next season!

Here's the challenge = what if (and it's a biggie for some of you big-time lawn-lovers) you allowed the Dandelion to grow for one whole season, and let it repair the soil naturally?  That means no chemicals, no pulling out the Dandelions - just let them be.

We did it and now we have a luscious meadow in our front yard, where the deer come to feast on the grasses that grow.  We've gained Yarrow, Rose Campion and Chamomile that have appeared all via the magic of the birds and the winds.  We have a safe environment for the Mason bees and honey bees that are feasting on our flowering Oregano.  

Now, I understand not everyone wants a meadow for their front yard, with such a variety of wild flowers and wildlife, but what it does tell me is that our front yard is a safe place for all life to flourish.  

Give Dandelion a chance to do their job, what Mother Nature intended them to do.  Your lawn could be just as safe a place for your family to play upon - healthy, green and safe from chemicals and poisons, all thanks to the Dandelion.

 

Things we can forget when we're in the midst of sadness...

You will laugh again.
You will feel happy again.
You will hope again.
You will be inspired again.
It's okay to be mad.
It's okay to be sad.
This is temporary.

Give it a minute, take a breathe and remember you are supported by your Angels, Guides and loved ones in spirit - always ~