Tag Archives: joy

Giving Thanks

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A year ago this week, I was gearing up to have what should have been a simple knee surgery. It turned out to be a life-changing experience. I got an infection, had the surgery a second time, was treated with antibiotics I turned out to be allergic to, and ended up back in the hospital again at the end of last year. One month, two surgeries, eleven days in the hospital, one lost holiday season.

Last Thursday, watching my two-year-old great-niece toddle around my sister-in-law’s house, I felt truly thankful to be alive, to be able to see and experience life and love around me. This week, instead of rushing out headlong into the next holiday frenzy, take some time to connect with the Source of Light and Life, and remember what makes you truly thankful. Maybe it will change the way you spend your winter holidays.

Starting December 1, I’ll be posting a new audio message here each week for four weeks called Prepare for Your New Year: Giving Thanks. These messages will be focused on opening yourself to Source and your guides, remembering and reconnecting with the gifts you have already been given. As we head toward the darkest time of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least!), let’s prepare to greet the New Year by sharing our gifts and our Light with the world.

Ten Years Ago Today

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On 9/11/01, I was at home in San Francisco with my family. A relative called to tell us about the attacks, and we switched on the TV. It stayed on for two days, as we watched the events unfold. Our home was near the airport, and the hum of aircraft was so much a part of our lives we didn’t notice it much anymore. But on that day, the planes were grounded, and the silence was palpable.

My oldest son was almost two years old then, and I remember watching him play happily in the sunshine and thinking, “What kind of a world will he grow up in? Will he have to live his life in fear?”

In the decade that followed, we’ve seen the payoff of a focus on fear and hate. War, greed, desolation, selfishness, cruelty. And profound loss.

We’ve also seen acts of courage, heroism, and unconditional love. We’ve seen hope and generosity rise from the devastation of disaster to touch lives and change hearts. In the last ten years, more and more people are experiencing a spiritual awakening … realizing that there is more to our experience on this planet than what we can see, touch, or grab for ourselves. And more and more of us feel called to reach out to others to share the fruits of our awakening, building networks and communities to bring us together and raise the vibration of the planet.

This weekend, One the Event is bringing people together to catalyze a collective shift to love and unity that will move us past the fear and hate of the last decade. You can be part of the event in person, if you’re in the Seattle area, or join in the global webcast.

I’ve been asked to host a special live radio broadcast today, as part of One the Event. Tune in today at 3 pm Pacific / 6 pm Eastern to hear me interview Shann Vander Leek and Raven Mardirosian. We’ll talk about reinventing our lives, and how to truly make the shift from fear to love … and the changes that making that shift can bring into our lives.

Where you were ten years ago? What were your dreams? And where are you today?

With every breath we take, we can change our course … change our lives … by shifting out of the fog of fear and into love.

Fear, Love, and Hope

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I’ve talked with a lot of people in the last week who feel like they might miss the boat. If they don’t scramble, grab, clutch at opportunities, crush the competition, get out in front … all will be lost.

Fear tells us to hold on tighter, ferociously guard what little we have in case someone tries to take it away. Fear brings all the light and air and possibility in the world down to a dark, desperate pinpoint focus.

Love invites us to relax our death-grip, give freely from what we have so there is space to be filled with more good things. Love lifts our head from that desperate, narrow focus, and opens our senses so we can breathe the air, see the light.

I often say that shifting your perspective from fear to love doesn’t make a lousy situation any less lousy. But all that fear-based scrambling leads you right back to where you started … stuck, paralyzed, miserable. And love invites opportunity, welcomes change, embraces new partnerships, new horizons.

Make the shift … and welcome choices, chances, hope.

What I Learned From My Lint Screen

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Worn stone stepsphoto: the sea the sea

I’m the mom of two energetic boys, and that means I do laundry. A LOT of laundry. The steps to our basement laundry room get so much use they remind me of the ancient worn stone steps in cathedrals. Just think of the generations of pilgrims making their way up and down these steps hoping to get closer to God! And just think of me, cursing and dragging my overflowing basket up and down my steps to get closer to the washer.

Anyway, I went down a few minutes ago to pull clothes out of the dryer and put in a new batch. The lint screen on my dryer has been messed up since the first day I used it. The fabric seal that runs around the bottom edge of the lint screen keeps coming out of its track, and that means lint gets stuck on the fabric seal and in the little track. Every time I empty the dryer, I curse at the lint screen, give it a halfhearted cleanup, and then shove it back in the track. And every time I do that, the dryer flashes its “check lint screen” light at me to remind me that I didn’t do a very good job. So I curse the light, too.

But today when I was in the middle of jamming the half-cleaned fabric seal back into the track, it occurred to me I had a choice. I could choose to take an extra 15 seconds to clean the seal carefully and put it back in the track. Or I could continue in my old pattern with the predictable results (cursing and flashing lights).

The patterns we hold onto are like those worn stone steps. We move in our accustomed paths from day to day, often no longer noticing what we’re doing or why. One of the steps that can help us break the cycle of fear-based thinking is to become aware that we have a choice … in any moment, no matter how small … about what our next step will be, and about what our attitude is as we take that step. Learning to be present, to be aware of what we’re doing, can lead to greater clarity … and even lint-free clothing!

Allow Yourself Joy

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Just got off the air (great show tonight, by the way!) and although it’s late, I wanted to jot this down before it got away from me.

We had a caller tonight who was feeling very down, very stuck. The clairvoyant image I had for him was that he was sitting in a chair with his head down … just feeling miserable and afraid. He’d had a job interview that went well, but the company hired someone else.

The guest reader tonight was master intuitive Susan Sloane, and she saw the caller surrounded by bicycles. “What does that mean?” she asked him.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about getting a bicycle because I have to get back in shape. But I don’t know …”

I jumped in and encouraged the caller to allow himself joy … to take action that will help him feel good. Not as a punishment because he didn’t get the job or is out of shape, but because he is allowed to do things that help him feel better! Whether that’s stepping outside and taking a deep breath of clean air, getting up out of the chair and making a phone call to a friend, taking a moment to center yourself and ask your guides and angels for help … just do it!

Allow yourself joy! Even when everything seems horrible, shifting your perspective away from punishing yourself makes a big difference in your ability to see opportunities when they arise.