44) Interconnectedness – The Synchronicity Continues!
19 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Science, Spiritual Tags: Blog, blogging, blogs, connectedness, connections, faith, Global One TV, I Am, inspirational, spirit, spiritual, spirituality, synchronicity, Tom Shadyac
I had just published my last post, 43) Interconnectedness, and whilst waiting for my toast to cool down, I was reading an email that had just arrived in my inbox. It was from Global One TV. I clicked on the link to look at their site and was drawn to take a look at the information about a film which has been made by Tom Shadyac. He directed many well-known entertaining films including The Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty and Liar, Liar.
The film he has made is a million miles away from his previous genre. I AM is a film he began to make after he was badly injured in a cycling accident and had begun to question his life, and to face the prospect of his own mortality. He wanted to investigate what is wrong with our world and what we can do to change it. He travelled extensively and, with a small film crew of only four, he interviewed several leading authorities on everything from science to psychology, from the environment to philosophy. He spoke to many many people in his search for answers including Bishop Desmond Tutu and Lynne McTaggart, the best-selling author whose work involves the linking of science and spirituality and the realism of quantum physics.
What he found was that there was a lot more right with the world than he ever thought before. I watched the trailer for the movie and was blown away by the references to the connectedness of us all, of everything we know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYtfnONazTU&feature=related
I’m hoping to get to see the whole film …. and my hope is that more and more people, globally, realise the huge impact that we, as individuals, are capable of making to enhance the world we live in, through our interconnectedness!
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43) Interconnectedness
18 May 2012 1 Comment
in Healing Tags: Blog, blogging, blogs, Energy Healing, faith, healing, Healing Code, Keifer Sutherland, Spiritual Growth, spiritual healing, spirituality, synchronicity, The Power, Touch, trust
Wednesday morning
On Tuesday nights I watch ‘Touch’, a fictional supernatural programme starring Keifer Sutherland who plays Martin, a widower, and who is the single father of a young boy, Jake, who is emotionally challenged.
Martin is unable to make any kind of connection with Jake who has never spoken a word and will not allow anyone to touch him. Jake lives in his own world but he is obsessed with numbers and can see both the past, present and future through the connections that the numbers make. I have always felt that we are all connected, that we are all from the creator, or as some would say, from source, or from God. I find the series fascinating with its insight into synchronicity and the realisation for the father, Martin, that there are no such things as coincidences.
On Monday I had received an email from a woman in America who has been reading my blogs. She asked me if I could help her in advising how she could receive spiritual healing. She had, she felt, been the victim of a con man who had charged her quite a large amount for supposedly healing her. She needed someone she could trust and had asked spirit for guidance and they had told her to contact me! I wasn’t feeling too well on Tuesday, so I didn’t reply to her straight away, but sent an email telling her I would email her again on Wednesday.
Tuesday night I settled down to watch Touch. This weeks episode wasn’t so much about numbers, but more about a pattern within a cats cradle that Jake kept making with wool. Martin, his father, had to try to place the pattern and work towards connecting people who were associated with it. All sounds rather odd if you haven’t been watching Touch, but in the programme it all made perfect sense. The important part of the pattern was two triangles which kept appearing in different guises and always made a connection with people, even across continents.
On Wednesday morning I was lying in bed, thinking of the email I had received and how I could possibly help someone who lived so far away – over 4,000 miles – when I happened to look out of my bedroom window. I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a perfect cross in the sky. It was exactly the pattern that Jake had been showing his father which connected everyone! I knew there and then that the distance between us meant nothing spiritually.
That in itself, was, synchronistically speaking, quite amazing. Later on Wednesday I was chatting to a wonderful friend of mine, Jane, who is both a gifted medium and healer. She was telling me about a workshop she had recently attended which was teaching a new way of healing, it was about a system called The Healing Code. I looked it up on the internet and saw that there was a book available and downloaded it to my kindle. Having read a few chapters I thought it would make sense for the lady in America to read it too. I emailed her and sent her a link to the book. At the same time I agreed to send her spiritual healing myself, and as I was typing her email I was covered in goosebumps which to me shows that I am certainly make the right decision.
The following day I received another email from her. On Wednesday she had gone and bought a book, The Power, the follow-up book to The Secret. It wasn’t the one I had been reading, but it included reference to the same man who had written the book I had advised her to buy! He was the only MD featured in the popular DVD of The Secret. Neither of us could believe it!! There we are, me living here in England and her in America, and of all the books in the world, she buys a book that includes a reference to the very same man. What are the chances of that? More synchronicity.
I feel that spirit has shown me this week, in more than one way, that we are all truly connected. We arranged that today I would send the lady spiritual healing. As I sat at a pre-arranged time I was again covered in my familiar goose-bumps and as I asked my healing guides to draw close and send healing to the lady I felt the most wonderful connection.
Truth really is stranger than fiction!
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42) An Apology
12 May 2012 8 Comments
in Lessons for Life Tags: spirit, faith, blogs, blogging, spirituality, thoughts, Spiritual Growth, church, Everlasting Love, family, Plymouth Brethren, religion, narrow path
The pier at Burnham-on-Sea (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I owe God an apology. Well in fact it’s an apology both to God and Jesus. It’s an apology from myself and also on behalf of my twin sister Tina, as we were in cahoots at the time, so I hope they will accept this from both of us.
When we were about eleven years old, Mum was, spiritually speaking, trying to finding her way. From my earliest memories I remember Mum trying various religions. Some she would really get involved in and others she would dismiss very quickly. She was a natural medium, but even with the knowledge that spirit is energy and so, ever-lasting, she was still searching for the meaning of life and felt that ‘somewhere’, ‘ out there’ she would find it.
She was working as a secretary for an airline in Hounslow, Middlesex, close to Heathrow Airport, and it was there that she met another secretary, Jean. Jean was a staunch member of the Plymouth Brethren Church. Unfortunately for us, Mum thought that this religion might be the one that we should all take on board. All, meaning Mum and Tina and myself, as Dad would never step foot inside a church and by that time our older brother,Ray, was more into becoming a hippy and playing his guitar than wanting to find himself embroiled in some religious activities.
Jean belonged to a small Plymouth Brethren church that Tina and I attended with Mum on a few occasions. The whole place was very understated and to me felt totally flat. There was no atmosphere at all, no feeling of joyous celebrations of life, just really boring sermons, uncomfortable chairs and self-righteous middle-aged ladies, faces scrubbed clean and dressed in drab neat boring clothes. They had such strict rules which basically meant that if you were to become one of them you wouldn’t be able to have much fun at all. I couldn’t help but wonder why Mum was at all interested in this very odd religion, but I think that the stranger it appeared, the more Mum thought there must be something to it. I am also sure that Jean felt that she could somehow change Mum, give her ‘real’ values and that she would throw away her makeup bag, her fashionable clothes, and become just like Jean – a mouse of a woman who spent her life adhering to the strictest of religious rules. Jean must have been very persuasive to get Mum to even consider joining.
Jean asked Mum if Tina and I would like to go on a Plymouth Brethren holiday and she had said yes. Mum told us that it would be really good fun and that she felt we hadn’t given the church much of a chance. Reluctantly we agreed to go, after all, we thought, it might be ok because it meant that we would be away on holiday just the two of us for the very first time. We really thought that it couldn’t possibly be that bad!
We had never been camping before and this was a holiday in big tents, so we really were quite excited as we packed our tee shirts and shorts and swimming costumes. I remember feeling so grown up as I carried my own suitcase onto the coach. The holiday was at a campsite at Brean Sands in Somerset, right beside the sea. To me as a child, a seaside holiday meant making sand castles, sunbathing, sticks of rock, chips and fizzy drinks, , swimming in the sea, playing in penny arcades and donkey rides. I imagined us all sitting round a camp fire at night singing jolly songs.
When we arrived we were all shown to our tents with our allotted sleeping bags already laid out on the ground. It didn’t look at all comfortable! There was a large wooden cabin were we all had to meet up for meals and for ‘meetings’. The lady in charge was called ‘Captain’, I would think she was in her mid fifties and wore a rigid black suit with a high neck buttoned white blouse, not your usual holiday clothes at all. She looked like a sergeant major to me and I had an uneasy feeling about her from the off. It was obvious she already knew lots of the other children and her tight-lipped stern expression only softened into a smile when she was addressing those she knew. The rest of us were greeted with a scowl and a look of disdain. Not the best welcome to a week-long holiday.
After sorting out our clothes we had to go the cabin for our tea. Captain sat at the top table and before we’d even eaten a sandwich she was standing up calling from a register and issuing your orders for the week. When she came to Tina and I she told us that we were on latrine duty. I had no idea what a latrine was but soon found out. Basically we were going to be toilet attendants for the week. Somehow that did not thrill us.
After tea we were told that the Bible verse for the week was John 10, verse 10. ‘The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly’. Captain explained that what that meant was that we were all sinners and unless we behaved ourselves and repented that we would not go to heaven. I was really worried, because I knew that I wasn’t always good and had sometimes been naughty. I was convinced that there was no way I was ever going to be able to get into heaven. That first night when I went to sleep, in my sleeping bag on the lumpy ground, I was trying so hard not to cry because I really thought I was going to be in such trouble with God.
The following morning after breakfast (and prayers …. lots of prayers) Tina and I had to carry out our latrine duties for the first time. The loos were dreadful. Everything smelt of jeyes fluid and the brushes for cleaning the toilet bowls had seen better days. It was not a pleasant task. I can’t begin to explain the state of some of the seats …. I still don’t know how they ever got like that. We had though been told that we would off on a bus to go to the beach for the rest of the day, so that was something we could really look forward to.
We all went and waited at the bus stop with our swimming costumes and towels full of happy thoughts for the day ahead. The bus arrived, complete with some local passengers and on we all got. Much to our absolute horror, Captain got everyone singing hymns. “S-A-V-I-O-U-R- we want you all to know, you’re the one, the only one who saves from sin (saves from sin), if in him, you will believe, his pardon you’ll receive”, etc etc. I felt a total fool with everyone staring at us. I had no option but to get used to it, because it happened everyday for the whole week. I just kept thinking that no-one would know Tina and I and at least we weren’t singing hymns on a bus where we lived.
Even on the beach the theme of the week continued. We were dispatched to sandcastle making teams. It was all very formal and efficient. Each team was given a passage from the bible that you had to make into a sand sculpture. My team had the verse ‘For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.’ Captain explained that in order to get into heaven we had to walk along the narrow path , but that most of us walked a wider path. There was that threat again. Behave … or else! There was no swimming, no boat rides, no ice creams. No fun at all.
To me, even at that young age, I felt that their whole philosophy was one of fear. So it went on through the whole week. I really wasn’t sleeping very well and both Tina and I cried ourselves to sleep every night because our worries were growing by the day. I made the massive mistake of asking Captain if we would be able to go to the pier and the fun fair. My goodness, she was not happy with me at all. I was told that I was sinful to want to go against the teachings of the bible. Then to top it off Tina and I were severely reprimanded by Captain, in front of everyone, because we were found walking across a field towards a donkey derby, which we were told, was strictly against God. That’s it, I thought, I’ve totally had it now. I was convinced that I was going to hell.
It was becoming an increasingly miserable time apart from every night, after the sermon, when other children were standing up telling how they had found Jesus or God. Everyone would be clapping and they would then become an accepted member of the group. It was obvious to us that there were very few left who hadn’t found Jesus, and we were definitely among those few! It also appeared that those people who had just found God or Jesus were given the better jobs within the camp. People who had been on rubbish patrol would be moved to cutlery placing, those on washing up were put on bread and butter service. It seemed that was the only way to get ahead. Tina and I reckoned that as we were already in so much trouble and we were going to go to hell anyway, we would hatch a plan to get out of latrine duties!
The following evening, after we had cleaned the loos before supper, we had our course of action in place. After we had eaten and said more prayers, and Captain had given us all yet another lengthy sermon on behaving, we stood up in unison. We told her we had found Jesus behind the cabin. She did look a little stunned, but managed a very small smile and everyone started clapping wildly. “The twins have found Jesus”, “the twins have found Jesus” they exclaimed excitedly! People gathered round us and hugged us. Suddenly we were no longer the outsiders, we were part of the group.
The next morning after breakfast we were given new instructions for the rest of the week . No longer did we have to clean the loos, we were told we would be in charge of handing out breakfast cereals and porridge. We had certainly been promoted. Our plan had worked! Then, the dreaded guilt set in. The realisation of the lies we had told and the total certainty of an everlasting life in hell really took its toll on both of us. We couldn’t wait to get home to talk to Mum and Dad. We were praying they could somehow fix everything with Jesus and God.
Thankfully the time to go home eventually arrived. Even now, forty-five years later, I remember how long that week felt. Mum and Dad met us at the coach station and had expected to be meeting two very happy sun tanned girls. Instead we got off the coach and just fell into their arms crying. Through sobs we told them that we were going to hell. We really were distraught. They asked us to explain what had happened and after we had, they told us there was no way in the world we would be going to hell. Dad really was quite cross that anyone could put such fear into children but was laughing uncontrollably when we told him about us finding Jesus behind the cabin. Mum explained that God is love and that there is no way in the world that God would want anyone to be frightened of him. Quite seriously it took months for Tina and I to get over the fears that had been instilled in us that week. Mum, thankfully, decided not to go to the church with Jean ever again and was very pleased when Jean moved offices!
Now, as an older woman, with many years of life’s experiences under my belt, I feel that the higher spirit, the creator of our universe, is as Mum said, pure love. Of that I have absolutely no doubt. I tend to follow my own spiritual pathway and rarely become involved in anything termed as ‘religion’, although I pray every night, and happily pray with friends.
I believe with all my heart that we all share a creator, no matter the title that anyone or any group may give to this divine spirit, and that this creator would never want to threaten or frighten, but instead would wish to instill love and compassion and empathy in all those who live.
I do still wonder whether the other children on that holiday were as frightened as we were. A whole week of being indoctrinated is pretty hard for an adult, never mind a young child. Thank goodness Tina and I had each other and parents who showed us, through example and guidance, what a wonder our creator truly is. I do though still wish to apologise for telling the lie about finding Jesus behind the cabin. Quite possibly (hopefully) God and Jesus had a good laugh about it. I am hoping they have a good sense of humour!
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41) Whooshy!
09 May 2012 6 Comments
in Communication, Evidence, Spiritual, Uncategorized Tags: Blog, blogging, blogs, evidence, family, Goose bumps, mediumship, spirit guide, spiritual, Spiritual Growth, spirituality, trust
Goose bumps provoked by a fresh breeze. Photo taken in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When I was a very young girl I was always aware of energies around me because, when they were about, I experienced head to toe goosebumps. I would happily be walking down the stairs and then suddenly …. whoosh … there they were … and I would be terrified!
From when I was 9 years old we lived in a typical 1930′s semi-detached three bedroom house in Twickenham, outer London. When Mum and Dad first bought the house it was very dowdy and when we arrived I thought it was really spooky. Full of dark colours and with drab curtains hanging at the windows, I wasn’t at all impressed. I’d have given anything to go back to the modern houses we had lived in when we were living in Essex before Dad had been transferred from Shell Haven, near Southend, to the Shell laboratories in Egham, Surrey. Mum though was thrilled to be living back near London and her relatives, and Dad was really happy as his transfer was also a step up the career ladder.
My twin sister, Tina, and I had to share the back bedroom which was decorated with wallpaper that was supposed to be ‘stone-wall effect’. Why anyone would ever want that in a bedroom I had no idea. It was horrid! Mum and Dad had the large double room overlooking the green at the front of the house, my brother Ray had a small single room and we all shared a pretty awful stark and very chilly bathroom. Downstairs was a sitting room with a dark wood panelled dining room at one end and a fairly small kitchen with a walk-in larder. There was no separate loo and no central heating. In the kitchen was a very old coal-fired boiler which I gathered heated the hot water and the only other heating in the house was a coal fire in the sitting room that seemed to emit more smoke than warmth. The back garden faced north-east so it was never bright and sunny. All in all I wondered, even at that young age, why on earth Mum and Dad had bought this awful dreary house.
Within a short time of moving in Mum, Tina and I were very busy decorating. Yes, you did read that correctly! My Dad, bless, was no decorator, and unless you wanted your wallpaper hung upside down or with the pattern mis-matched, and drips of gloss running down the doors, you didn’t ask him to help. Ray was far more interested in being out and about with his friends, so it was up to us girls to get stuck in. Mum was a dab-hand at everything d.i.y. and from when Tina and I could just about walk she had taught us all she knew. She had so much patience and would spend hours teaching us how to prepare surfaces for painting, how to hold a paintbrush and put just enough gloss paint on so that it covered but did not run. There she was with her beautifully manicured nails and her exquisitely styled hair, full make up and happy as a sandboy, she’d be up and down ladders, painting, wallpapering and even stripping and painting furniture. Mum was fantastic with colours and her interior design flair soon brightened every inch of the house. All the dark wallpapers had gone replaced by bright light modern colours. It was a total transformation and the neighbours kept popping round to ask Mum’s advise. She missed her calling there I think, she should have set up in business and she’d have done so well.
From the moment we moved in I felt that there was a lot going on spiritually speaking. Both Tina and I were becoming more and more aware of energies in our bedroom at night. I would get myself under the covers and not dare to peek out because I just knew ‘someone’ was in the room and would be covered in goosebumps, no matter the actual temperature. Stupidly I had thought that now the house was brighter I would feel more at ease. I suppose thinking about it now, why would the colour of the wallpaper or the curtains make one jot of difference to a spirit!
What didn’t help either was that Dad would often go upstairs and sit on his own in the bedroom he and Mum shared. If you walked past the door you could hear him having a one-sided conversation (not that Tina and I would ever stand there and listen intentionally!). It was all very odd and if we asked who he was talking to he would make some excuse not to answer. It was only many years later that he told us that he would be talking to his twin sister Mary, who had died when he was five, and he also had regular chats with his Father-in-law, Ray (Mum’s Dad), who had passed to spirit before Tina and I were even born. Mum was exploring her religious beliefs and spirituality and among other religions that she dabbled with, was off to spiritual meetings and circles whilst we lived there, so no wonder the house was busy with spirit energies!
I remember one particular Saturday afternoon. Dad was sitting watching sport on the tv and I was going to go upstairs to collect a book to read. As I went to go up the stairs I was suddenly covered in goosebumps and I froze, I called to Dad and explained that I had gone all whooshy. To try to put me at my ease he explained that if there was anything on the stairs, our dog, Belle (a beautiful Saluki) would know about it. He went and brought her out from the sitting room. She too froze at the bottom of the stairs and with her heckels up began to growl. Dad said she had picked up on my fear and put her back in the sitting room and went and got Perky, our cat, who was curled up by the boiler, and put her on the bottom of the stairs too. There was no way she was going to go upstairs either! She quickly ran back into the kitchen. Dad walked up the stairs with me and as we almost got to the turn near the top the hairs on every inch of my body were standing on end and I was what I now term ‘mega-whooshy’. As soon as we reached the landing the feeling began to subside.
The bathroom was very busy, spiritually speaking, I often felt ‘someone’ was in there, even in the bath I would be going whooshy! Looking back I suppose I should have asked who it was, but at such a young age I never thought to do that. All of the family saw someone walk into the bathroom on many occasions and we also used to see the towels lifted off the towel rail, which became quite a common occurrence! I soon learnt that the best way to deal with all the odd feelings I had was to imagine a transparent bubble surrounding me that nothing could penetrate. No-one ever told me to do this, it was purely instinctive, and throughout my whole life it is something I have often done without even really thinking about it. I always feel amazingly safe in my bubble of protection.
Over the years in Twickenham the whole family saw and felt spirit energies both in the house and just outside in the garden. Sometimes just one of us would experience something but often it would two or more of us at the same time. We would all be sitting eating our lunch in the dining room and often see someone walk past the french doors, which was impossible as it went nowhere. To begin with Dad would go outside to see who it was, but after several sightings we all just took it as ‘normal’ and would acknowledge whoever it was and carry on with our meal. I always knew someone was about because I would experience my whooshy feeling even before anyone else said anything. I didn’t mind too much when we were all together, but I didn’t like it at all when I was in the house on my own, which I would try to avoid as much as possible.
Since that time I have learnt that when I feel the whoosh it is my very own spiritual radar working. It has never been wrong. It works in many different ways now. I suppose as I’ve grown older, it has been fine-tuned. If I am giving a demonstration of spirit and am not sure who the recipient is, it has come in very handy. For example, say I have an elderly gentleman trying to connect with someone, as I start giving evidence I am never sure who it is for. If someone tries to accept the message and I don’t experience the ‘whoosh’ I know the message is not for them, but the moment the right recipient acknowledges the spirit, from my feet up I feel the ’whoosh’ rushing right up through my body, and I know it is right. It’s also very useful when I have been sitting in church, or in a circle, and someone tries to place a spirit reading with me. They may say ‘I have your Dad with me’ and if I feel nothing I know they haven’t, but if I feel the whoosh I know they have.
As most of my friends are mediums or healers, we do have some, shall I say, rather strange conversations at times. We chat about our experiences with spirit and some of them are really quite incredible, and some are almost unbelievable. Many people, I am sure, had they been eavesdropping, would think ‘what a load of rubbish’, and I must admit on occasions I have found some things hard to swallow. Even as I am sometimes recounting some of the wonderful and weird occurrences that I have been witness to, or been involved with, I am sure others must just have at least the slightest inkling that I am exaggerating! I have sat listening to the most amazing stories and have been covered in goosebumps and just know that what I am being told is true. I feel I am so fortunate to have my own lie-detector on board and what is even better is that I can show people too! It doesn’t matter, even if I’m sitting in warm sunshine, if I get the whoosh, I am covered in goosebumps. It is a wonderful way of proving that I am receiving a ‘signal’. At other times friends will ask my advise, and if they give me alternative solutions to their problems I will feel the whoosh when they mention the correct course of action for them to take. The whoosh then becomes like spiritual shorthand. As I said, it has been fine-tuned, and I can’t imagine my life without it now.
I was sitting chatting to two friends, Niki and Sharon, last week and we were discussing how, after we had passed into spirit ourselves, we would be able to give the kind of evidence to a medium so that our friends and loved ones would absolutely know it was us. For Sharon we said that she could say she had an affinity with wolves, had a phoenix tattoo and enjoyed karaoke. That would certainly be Sharon! For Niki, we all agreed on the description of big hair (Niki naturally has lots and lots of very curly hair) and her favourite saying which is ‘I don’t know’. I think we would know that was Niki without too much of a problem. For me, I had to laugh, Sharon said there was just one word that would guarantee it was me. The word? Whooshy!!
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40) The Touch of An Angel
21 Apr 2012 12 Comments
in Healing, Spiritual Tags: Accolade Academy, Angel, angels, Blog, blogging, blogs, healing, inspirational, Margam, martha mckinnon, spiritual healing, the touch of an angel
Angel Art (Wallpaper) By Julée San
I had never taken much of an interest in angels and had never seen anything like an angel until last summer when I was particularly unwell. I was going through a very bad phase health wise and was feeling despondent because I had optimistically booked a five-day residential mediumship course with the Accolade Academy at Margam in Wales. I was so ill I really thought that I wouldn’t be able to cope with the journey there, never mind actually manage the course.
Only a few days before I was due to go away, I was talking with my friend Martha McKinnon, a gifted medium and healer who I have known for several years. I was telling her how disappointed I was that I would be unable to attend the course and how another friend was on standby to take my place. Martha very kindly offered to give me healing. Now Martha lives in Scotland and I am in Hampshire, so we are not at all close geographically, in fact it is over 430 miles, but Martha said this would make no difference. We arranged for me to lie on my bed at 9pm and that she would text me when she had started and would text again when she was finished.
I laid on the bed and to be honest wasn’t expecting to feel anything at all. I didn’t hear Martha’s text arrive, so just closed my eyes and relaxed. I was immediately aware of a presence around me and was sure I could hear people softly talking, but I didn’t open my eyes because I was a little wary of what or who I might see! I felt a wonderful sense of love and warmth surrounding me and in a strange way my body felt unbelievably light. It was a very lovely feeling. I must have drifted off to sleep because the next thing I knew was that I was waking up and seeing that it was exactly an hour since I had laid down.
I was going to get up and make a cup of tea but somehow felt I should carry on lying there until I heard from Martha. I was just lying on the bed looking at the ceiling when I saw a small bright light above me. As I looked closer I could see that in the light was a small face. I couldn’t believe my eyes and sat up to take a closer look. The face was surrounded by a soft golden light and then I saw what I can only describe as waves of what looked like downy feathers encircling the face. I watched as it moved slowly across the ceiling and then disappeared. I was stunned. I had never seen anything like it before. Then I noticed another light across the room, and again there was a small face, surrounded by the same golden light and downy feathers and it too drifted across the ceiling and then faded. This happened twice more.
By now I decided I really did need that cup of tea and checked my phone to see if Martha had sent a text. She had, but only the one before she had started the healing, and I realised then that I hadn’t heard it because my phone was on mute. The text read: ‘The healing has left my hands darling, and it’s now in the hands of the angels! I’m being told that they are working with you right now, so lie still for another wee while honey and you will feel so much better soon! But don’t worry cos you will known when it’s time to move about ok? Let me know how you feel later darling.’
My goodness, I couldn’t believe it! I really wondered if what I had seen had been tiny angels and there was Martha’s text confirming that she had left my healing in the angels hands. I couldn’t wait to tell Martha and rang her. She said she wasn’t at all surprised. I was amazed, not just with the angels I had seen, but by how very small they were. If someone had asked me to describe an angel I would have assumed that they were at least our size or larger. Martha told me that she felt they came in all sizes! The next day I was over the moon when I felt better than I had in months and the feeling of energy running through me was incredible. I had to tell my friend on standby that I would be able to go on the course after all. I know she was disappointed as she was looking forward to the possibility of going herself, but she was also really pleased that I was feeling so well.
Several months passed and I had not been aware of any angels again until one evening I was lying down and about to begin a healing meditation. I saw a haze of the deepest purple surrounding me and then saw a small golden glow down to my right. When I looked closer the glow became more and more intense and then there, right in the middle of it, was a very small angel looking up at me with arms outstretched towards me. It could have only been about two or three inches high and again I was amazed at how tiny it was. It glowed brighter and brighter and then began to fade. I felt a wave of disappointment as I saw it vanish before my eyes only to then be delighted to see another glow appearing to my left. Sure enough another little angel appeared and then faded followed by another and another. In all there were six of them this time. I just laid on the bed in awe of what I had just seen. I am sure that they came to assist in my healing. It does seem that’s when these little souls arrive.
I remember verses that I had ‘received’ one morning back many years ago. I had woken and heard the words but then as I went about my morning routine I had forgotten them. The next morning as I awoke I was given the words again and I wrote them down. I have no idea who gave them to me, only that it was a soft gentle voice.
The Touch of An Angel
It is only when I close my eyes, that I can truly see, the need in the world and the joy there should be.
It is only when I close my eyes and sit quiet and still, that I hear the whispers of nature, a birds gentle trill.
It is only when I close my eyes and sit quiet and still and empty my mind, that my heart starts to fill.
In a world without form, without these senses we share, I find total peace and feel utter care.
Aware of my soul, the essence of me, there is only one truth, that whatever shall be.
As pure as true love, without fault or shame, there is compassion and truth and no-one to blame.
High in the heavens, as I travel through light, an angel appears, surreal and so bright.
He touches my soul, and repairs all my pain, with a spark of the Divine, I feel whole once again.
I return to this place, with my energies renewed, to complete my life’s work, to assist all of you.
As I open my eyes and hear the noise of this life, I fill my mind with everything that I am as a Mother and wife.
But deep in my soul, throughout every day, I know there’s an angel, just a moment away.
Strangely the words appear to be written in the first person, but I feel that they are for everyone, to enable us to gain an understanding of how easy it is to connect with angels. It was over ten years later, last summer, that I first felt any type of connection with angels at all, but they do say that there is no time in the spirit world, so I am sure one of my lessons is to learn to be patient!
I’m looking forward to my next angel encounter …. no matter how long I might have to wait!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juleesan/6439129581/in/photostream
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39) The Afterlife Monologues
17 Apr 2012 6 Comments
in Communication, Development, Evidence, Spiritual Tags: afterlife, afterlife monologues, Blog, blogging, blogs, education, english psychic company, Everlasting Love, evidence, inspiration, Liz Gilmour, love, mediumship, north devon, psychic, soul, spirit, spiritual, spiritual reading, spirituality, susan roberts
Simon and I went down to North Devon a couple of weekends ago. I used to live there and sometimes feel a real longing to drive along familiar country roads and walk along a typical sandy Devon beach and feel the fresh sea air on my face. I have a friend who lives just outside Barnstaple, Susan Roberts, I have mentioned her in my blogs before. She set up and runs the English Psychic Company, and she was my first real teacher of mediumship. She ran a tight ship and accepted nothing but the best. My evenings in her classes were a mixture of trepidation and relief. She set such high standards and expected nothing less of us, her pupils. She wouldn’t even accept you on a course until you had passed a test to prove that you had some potential, and that was nerve-wracking in itself.
I first met Susan after my Mum had died and I had heard her (Mum, not Susan!) talking to me in the loo, always late at night. The first time it happened I thought it was my imagination, but immediately as I thought that Mum told me it wasn’t. I came out of the loo and didn’t tell anyone what had just happened as I was sure they would think I was crazy. The following night, just before bed, again in the loo, Mum talked to me again, I told her that I was sure she was a wishful thought and again she told me she wasn’t. Well if you are real, I said, make the lights go on and off. To my utter amazement, the lights flickered! You have never seen anyone move so fast out of the loo! This happened for several nights. Nothing at all in the daytime, but come my last visit to the loo, there would be Mum. I didn’t see her, but I could feel her presence, her warmth and love, and I could hear her voice, definitely hers, not mine, but inside my head.
During the day I was so sad, missing my Mum so much, but feeling quite mixed up knowing that in the evening there would be this very odd form of contact. I tried to reason with myself that the whole thing was just too bizarre and to be honest I often felt that I was losing the plot. It was a secret I kept to myself. Part of me dreaded going to the loo because I was quite afraid, but another part would be looking forward to the comfort that I felt every night knowing that Mum was ok and was still around.
After a week or so I decided I really should do something about all of this. Ever since I was a very young child I had been aware of spirits, of energies around me, of knowledge that from my earthly life I shouldn’t' or couldn’t have known, but this was very different, I had never had an ongoing communication with someone who I had known and loved before.
I had met a spiritual healer, Liz Gilmour, at a local spiritual fayre a couple of years before and had kept her business card in my purse. I felt sure that she would know of someone locally I could go and see to try to find out what was going on. I rang Liz and without telling her any information at all I asked if she knew of anyone who could communicate with spirits. Without hesitation she recommended Susan Roberts. She told me that Susan had an excellent reputation and was very down to earth. I rang Susan straight away and made an appointment which was for a week later. She asked me to bring along a photo of the person I would ideally like to get in contact with, but she said she couldn’t always guarantee that that person may communicate. Apart from that she didn’t ask me anything else at all. Part of me was so excited to be seeing a professional medium and the other part was absolutely terrified. I had no idea what to expect and kept feeling the biggest butterflies in my tummy every time I thought about it.
Eventually the day of the reading arrived and with an enormous amount of trepidation I went along to see Susan. It was such a relief to be welcomed by a ‘normal’ woman who immediately put me at my ease. She showed me into her sitting room which spookily overlooked a graveyard, I remember thinking how funny that was. I showed her the photo I had taken along and straight away Susan told me it was a photo of my Mum who had died three weeks before, She told me about Mum’s illness and how she had died. Then, much to my amazement, and laughing as she told me, she said that Mum had been talking me in the loo! Everything Susan told me was absolutely accurate. I skipped out of her house and driving home felt so uplifted and positive totally knowing that my Mum had been chatting to me.
I had no idea at the time that I would again be in contact with Susan within a few weeks. My brother Ray died totally unexpectedly just six weeks after my Mum. He was only fifty and was found in his bed at home. At the time we had no idea how he had died or what was the cause of his death. I spoke to Susan just days after Ray died, as again I was sure I could feel him close to me. She gently started to explain that it was most probably too early for him to be able to make contact, but as she spoke I could sense her hesitating. She asked if a red tricycle meant anything to me. It certainly did. As I said yes she started receiving more evidence from Ray. She told me exactly how he had died and most importantly for me, that he had felt no pain. She told me that his heart had literally just stopped. That he was here one minute and gone the next. Just like that. No pain at all. I was so relieved as I had been concerned that he would have been distressed. Sure enough when we received the results of his autopsy it confirmed that his heart had just stopped and that his passing to spirit would have been instant.
Over the years I have been fortunate to have met several wonderful mediums who have given me the most fantastic evidence and messages from those I have lost. I do think that if I hadn’t met Susan at such a difficult time in my life I would have been very doubtful, but she was so accurate with everything she said that she gave me confidence to explore the amazing world of spirit both as a medium myself, being able to give comfort to those missing their loved ones, and as someone myself so pleased to hear from those I love who are in spirit.
I have absolute confidence in Susan and when she told me that over the years she had been contacted by several spirits who wanted their experiences of death heard by a wider audience, I could appreciate why they had chosen her to tell their stories. She had written their stories exactly as she heard them, and over a long period had built up quite a selection. Spirits contacted her from all walks of life with very different stories to tell. She decided to bring the stories to the stage and called the production The Afterlife Monologues. Several of her students took the roles of the spirits and spoke in the first person, recounting their memories. I was intrigued and was so sad when I was unable to attend the first time it was on at a theatre in Devon. It was by pure chance just a couple of months ago that I asked Susan is she was thinking of putting on another production. She said that one was planned for the end of March. That was wonderful news! I could go and walk along the beach, see some old friends, and go and see the Afterlife Monologues all within a long weekend. I booked the hotel straight away and Simon booked the time off work. We were so lucky with the weather. Our journey from our home in Hampshire was just beautiful. We stopped by a field of new-born lambs, watching them running and playing, then found a country pub where we enjoyed a fantastic lunch on a sunny roof terrace. It couldn’t have been better.
We met Susan at her premises and sat near the back so that we could see everything. The stories from the spirits were just incredible, The readers were amazing and bought the stories to life. You really felt they were telling their own experiences. When we spoke to some of the readers in the break they said that they could feel the emotions of the spirits whose stories they were reading, which was certainly conveyed to us in the audience. Simon, who I had thought may find it all a little boring, actually really enjoyed the evening. Afterwards when we were sitting having a drink in the bar in the hotel he was asking so many questions about spirit. Far more than he ever has in the years we have been together. I believe that the moving and realistic way in which the experiences were bought to life really made his mind open up to the reality of our ongoing lives in our spiritual form. I do hope that one day Susan will make a dvd of these stories so that an even wider audience can experience these for themselves.
I do think that one thing that so many of us find so hard to talk about is physical death. It is a subject that many people avoid as they say it is depressing and also of course many find the whole thing terribly frightening too, which is understandable. It is though, the one thing that we all know for sure will happen to us at some time, yet most of us are totally unprepared for it. We are also unprepared for the death of a loved one. It is almost taboo to talk about such things unless you are talking to an insurance salesman or a solicitor who is drawing up wills.
I know that when my parents and my brother all died within less than four months I wouldn’t have been able to cope without the certainty that their spirits, their souls, still existed. It was largely thanks to Susan and her spiritual communications that I could manage to get through those dark days. I was talking to her after my Dad had died, telling her how very sad I was and how much I missed him. She told me something I will never forget. She said that whilst we are all so upset here for losing someone we love, at the same time there are massive celebrations in the spirit world as that person is being reunited with loved ones who have passed before. She said to imagine that my Dad was on a ship, leaving the shore, waving to me as he went, but when the ship completed its journey, he would reach another shore where his Mum and Dad and his brothers and sisters would be waiting to greet him. I thought of that many times over the years, knowing how pleased Dad would have been to see his family and in particular his twin sister Mary again, knowing how much he missed her throughout his life.
We had a wonderful time back in North Devon. I did manage to walk along my old local beach and enjoyed feeling the warm sand between my toes, breathing in the crisp clear air. We drove down many winding country lanes, shared lovely times with old friends and Simon took some great photographs. What a great mini-break we had, and how delighted I was to have been able to see the Afterlife Monologues. I know the stories and experiences of those spirits will stay with me always.
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Candle Lighter Award!!!
16 Apr 2012 8 Comments
in Blog Award Tags: award, Blog, Blog award, blogs, Candle Lighter Award, Candlelighter Award, enlightening, inspiration, positive, spirit, spiritual reading, spirituality, uplifting, WordPress, Writers Resources
I was really chuffed to be the recipient of this award given to me by the very delightful blogger Summer Grant (isn’t that just the most wonderful name!) who writes the blog anyonething which I thoroughly enjoy reading. I love the enthusiasm and honesty of her posts which share her journey of studying to be a journalist/writer and her avid joy for the written word. She has a great sense of wit and has an opinion on almost everything. A really refreshing blog which I would advise you to take a look at!
The Candle Lighter Award is an award for a post or blog that is positive and brings light into the world.
The Candle Lighter Award belongs to those who believe, who always survive the day and who never stop dreaming, who do not quit but keep trying.
There are no rules.
If you wish to, simply accept it and you are done!
You are also free to decline or ignore it.
Recipients can pass it on to as many nominees as they wish and as often as they wish.
I am really pleased that Summer finds my posts so positive. In spiritual circles, those of us who work for spirit, whether as mediums, healers, counsellors, writers, or in many other ways, are called lightworkers, so it’s rather apt that my spiritually based blog should receive this.
With that in mind I would like to nominate another spiritually based blog, the tovarysh connection. I tend to read these gentle posts again and again and always find further nuggets of wisdom to consider throughout my day. I do hope that you will take the time to look at her inspirational words and insights into life.
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38) Pros and Cons
23 Mar 2012 2 Comments
in Illness Tags: Blog, blogging, blogs, Friendship, Migraine, ocular migraine, opinion, optical migraine, philosophy, silent migraine, Twin
Yesterday I was supposed to be going out for afternoon tea with two good friends, Kay and Annette. We had planned to go to a large garden centre where we could have sat outside enjoying the afternoon sunshine. It was a special outing as Kay had been housebound for several months since last August and Annette has recently recovered since going through, what can only be termed as, an onslaught of medical problems. She really had been through the mill and we were all so pleased to be able to finally arrange a get together. I had been so looking forward to the three of us having chats and generally enjoying one another’s company. Unfortunately though my own health issues decided to play up and so I had no option but to cancel.
It all started last weekend when I had the strangest experience which I must admit at the time, I’d wondered if it could spiritually based. I suddenly lost some of my vision and then saw the most wonderful iridescent colours, sparkles and light beams. It was seriously like something out of a science fiction movie. Diamond shaped lights zooming around the room and lines of the brightest golds pinks and blues. It was a little like an indoor firework display but without the noise. It lasted about fifteen or twenty minutes and then just stopped. I thought it was rather odd, but had no other symptoms or pain and as I had been talking about spiritual matters at the time I did wonder if it was just one of those peculiar things that has happened to me from time to time. I had previously, many years ago, taken myself off to the opticians when I had experienced some very unusual colours and odd visuals but had that time been assured that my eyes were fine. I am sure now that spirit were involved on other occasions, but on Sunday it was totally different to anything I’d had before.
On Monday I had to see my doctor about an unrelated matter. At the end of the consultation I mentioned the light show I had seen. I fully expected her to be dismissive and tell me it was nothing to worry about, but instead, with almost a look of panic, she told me I should go straight to eye casualty. She said that I may have a detached retina. Goodness, I was more than a little shocked. My main concern was how on earth do they stick a detached retina back on! Is there some kind of eye super glue?
Thankfully when Simon took me to the hospital we quickly saw an eye specialist and he asked me my medical history (poor man!) and decided that it was more than likely that I’d had an ocular migraine. He said that I should go back and have a full examination the next day, but not to worry. When I came home I looked up the diagnosis and it certainly seemed to fit. The following day another doctor put what I would call ‘stinging liquid’ in my eyes to fully dilate them so that he could take a more in-depth look at the back of my eyes. He confirmed that everything looked fine and that he too felt I’d had an ocular migraine. I was told I shouldn’t drive and I was lucky that Kay drove me because when I came out my vision was all fuzzy and I couldn’t even see the curbs, let alone a cyclist I almost walked into!
My body never seems to want to behave ‘normally’. I have had what I call typical migraines since my late teens and over the years have been able to manage them quite well with some powerful medication and learning what works best, which for me is absolute silence, absolute darkness, absolute stillness and cold damp towels on my forehead and back of my neck. In more recent years I have been diagnosed with vestibular migraines which cause the most dreadful dizziness and vertigo but no pain and I have to take daily medication to try to avert them. Now I have the ocular version! A free light show and no pain. I know which one I’d choose if I had a choice!
So, I thought everything was fine. I came home from the hospital with my eyes looking like I was some kind of junkie. Simon just kept staring at me with my massive pupils, which I couldn’t see because my vision was still all blurred. I wish he’d taken a photo of me now because he said I looked so weird!
Typically though my body decided to react. Anything unusual and it plays up. I’ve done all the positive health affirmations for years. I have spent hours of my life saying out loud ‘I am well’, ‘I am healthy’, and various versions. I still do. I say it as if it were right now, not in the future. I should have a diploma for all the affirmation books, hints and tips I’ve read. I’m still hopeful that one day the words will suddenly slip into my subconscious and my body will sit up and take notice.
Today my twin Tina was supposed to be coming over for the day. I know how much our Fridays mean to her, and I just hate to let her down. She and I look forward to spending time together, no matter what we are able to do, even if it’s just sitting reading or listening to music. Our Fridays are special, we talk about our childhoods, our parents, our brother, our shared memories all of which are so important for Tinas recovery after her stroke. If she’s feeling up to it she might be able to peel a few carrots, which for her is a mega achievement, or even make a cup of tea. We take great delight in every step she takes along her path towards becoming more independent. Yesterday I was feeling so lousy I thought it only fair to warn her that I might not be up to her visit today, but ever hopeful said that I would ring her this morning to let her know for sure.
I had an early night after already sleeping most of yesterday, but even though I slept well I knew the minute I woke up that I would have to have another day hibernating, recharging my battery, if I was to get back to anywhere near my normal energy level (which is a pretty pathetic 4/10 compared to my pre-illness 10/10) . I dreaded ringing Tina and sure enough she was very upset and crying. I know she understood but her emotions are raw since her stroke. Very small things can easily annoy her or upset her and she becomes frustrated by her lack of ability to deal with matters which she would have not given a second thought to when she was well. I looked out at the beautiful spring sunshine and crawled back into bed. I do know that I am far luckier than a lot of people. I have been going through a good phase recently where I have been able to stick to most of my plans for several weeks. I have to organise everything with breaks and rests but by doing that can enjoy my life immensely.
In bed yesterday afternoon, with Maddie loving every moment of being able to lay beside me, I did think about my life before I was chronically ill. I wondered, health wise, if I had no option but to make a choice between my previous life or my life now which would I choose? I thought about it on and off for quite a while. Weighing up the pros and cons. One thing that most ‘well’ people do is take their health and energy for granted, whilst most unwell people make the most of every good minute they have. I thought about seriously wealthy people who waste their money and rarely value what they have, whereas people on a budget plan their spending carefully and make the most of every penny they have and truly value what they can afford.
I thought of the friends I have who accept me with all my limitations, who show such enormous patience when I sometimes have to let them down, who really care how I am and where possible make allowances for my limited energy. I also thought of the friends I used to have, many who sadly disappeared into the woodwork when I became chronically ill. My friends now are very different, more ‘real’, far more caring and also far more fun. I feel I am so lucky. I am rich in friendships and time spent with my friends is always so worthwhile. Would I have valued my friends so much before?
It’s tough to crawl back into bed when the sun is shining, but then many people are working, often doing something they don’t particularly like, and not even seeing the sunshine. Many people are trapped in their hectic lives, trying to be the best, have the best, striving to achieve perfection but never feeling they are succeeding. There I was curled up in my comfy bed with my beautiful dog by my side listening to gentle meditation music whilst a warm breeze wafted over me from the open window. Hmmm …. the choice would not be easy!
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37) A Promise from Spirit!
13 Mar 2012 12 Comments
in Communication, Spiritual, Uncategorized Tags: Arthur Findlay College, Blog, blogging, blogs, diana garland, english psychic company, Everlasting Love, love, mediumship, simone keys, spiritual, Spiritual Growth, spiritual reading, susan roberts, Twin
She loved him like he was
The last man on Earth
Gave him everything she ever had
He’d break her spirit down
Then come lovin’ up to her
Give a little, then take it back
She’d tell him about her dreams
He’d just shoot ‘em down
Lord he loved to make her cry
“You’re crazy for believin’
You’ll ever leave the ground”
He said, “Only angels know how to fly”
And with a broken wing
She still sings
She keeps an eye on the sky
With a broken wing
She carries her dreams
Man you ought to see her fly
One Sunday morning
She didn’t go to church
He wondered why she didn’t leave
He went up to the bedroom
Found a note by the window
With the curtains blowin’ in the breeze
And with a broken wing
She still sings
She keeps an eye on the sky
With a broken wing
She carries her dreams
Man you ought to see her fly
With a broken wing
She carries her dreams
Man you ought to see her fly
I try so very hard not to look back on my previous ‘life’ with negative thoughts but must admit sometimes it’s tough not to! I prefer to concentrate my thoughts on the now and with my wonderful husband Simon and the friends I am so very fortunate to have in my life.
Last night we were sitting listening to our favourite music tracks and Simon played one that has a particular place in my heart. It was a song I used to listen to when I was in my previous marriage, when I felt there was no way out. I would imagine myself flying away, having the freedom to spend time with my friends, to chat on the phone, to read books and to be able to have fun. To be able to be excited and not have my dreams mocked, not to be in trouble over everything I ever did or said. To be able to be me.
I used to lay in bed at night wondering how I could leave. I would envisage a life so removed from that which I had, but which I always thought was unattainable.
My ex-husband and I had been to Calgary in Canada and were staying with one of his business associates and his very lovely and spiritual wife, when, very strangely, whilst driving along in the back of the car, my wedding ring had literally and inexplicably broken into pieces. His wife was stunned and as she was already aware that my marriage was not wonderful, but not to the extent it actually was, she said that it was definitely a sign that it was beyond repair.
She and her husband were coming over to England just a couple of weeks later and she and I had arranged to go and see Diana Garland who offered astrological and clairvoyant readings. I had met Diana years before at a spiritual event and had been most impressed. She went for her reading first and was really pleased when she came out, saying how accurate Diana had been. I went in for my reading not expecting that I would hear anything particularly life changing, but I was in for a big surprise. I had always kept my marital problems to myself but Diana certainly picked up on them, and in her gentle and guiding way she explained that my chart showed that a massive change was about to happen in my life. She told me that if I didn’t make a decision very soon the chance would be gone and I would be stuck in my life for always. The very next morning, I actually came to the decision to risk everything and leave.
I drove over 50 miles across country, down narrow lanes, weaving my way across the countryside to my sister’s house. I drove my car but felt as if I was flying, knowing that no matter what happened I would never go back, knowing that at last I would not be spending my life living in fear. I had never felt spirit so close to me as that morning, I felt a golden light surrounding my little car and me, a safety bubble that nothing could penetrate. For the first time in over 25 years I felt totally safe. It was the most incredible feeling.
I had not been able to be in contact with my twin sister very much as he had objected to our relationship (gulp – how can that possibly be?) so I had no idea that she and her husband and their six children were about to move. We decided that we would find somewhere where we could all move together and my sister and I went all over the country looking at properties before settling on a house in Hampshire.
When I spoke to my friend Susan Roberts, a wonderful psychic medium from Barnstaple who started the English Psychic Company, she told me that within a few months I would be meeting my soul mate, but wouldn’t actually see him – I wondered how on earth that could be! She said that we would be made for each other and would be living together within six months of meeting. I had known Susan for several years and knew that her predictions were generally spot on but couldn’t quite believe what she was saying. It all sounded too good to be true.
Shortly after moving to Hampshire I attended a weeks residential course at the Arthur Findlay College in Stanstead. I booked a private mediumship reading with the tutor Simone Key whom I had never met before. As soon as walked in the room, and before I had even sat down, she said ‘my goodness you’ve just left a relationship after over 25 years’. Talk about accurate! She went on to tell me that I would shortly meet a fantastic young man who was my soul mate. She said I would have a life full of fun and laughter with him and that he would support me in everything. I was just a little amazed after an almost identical reading from Susan. I couldn’t wait!
Whenever people tell you that you have a fabulous future ahead of you it does take some getting used to. I still didn’t quite understand how I could meet someone but not see them though. That really confused me. Little did I know then that I would join an internet dating site and meet the most lovely man who didn’t put his photo on the site!
How incredibly organised spirit was. I look back now and see that from the moment my wedding ring broke everything was in place to put me on my new pathway. I was given the confidence to make life changing decisions safe in the knowledge that spirit were with me, guiding me through the readings from the most genuine people. I felt that I had a promise of a new life … just waiting round the corner.
Tomorrow, Simon and I will be celebrating our FIFTH wedding anniversary! We’ve known each other just over seven years now and my life with him is just as foretold. I adore being his wife, his friend, his playmate, his love.
He has accepted me totally for who I am. I am just me …. and there are no words in the world to describe how unbelievable that is. To be loved and love is heaven and I count my blessings every day. Thank you!
P.S. (Can you have a PS on a blog?)
Funnily enough, whilst writing this post I had a break about ten minutes ago and found a lovely post in my inbox which confirmed everything I already knew! How spirit likes to make certain we get the point!! Please take a look … her blogs are great! http://complexmuse.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/show-your-soul-to-attract-your-soul-mate/
www.dianagarland.com
http://www.englishpsychiccompany.com/
www.arthurfindlaycollege.org
http://www.simonekey.co.uk/
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Sunshine Award!! Yay!
05 Mar 2012 11 Comments
in Blog Award Tags: Blog, blogging, blogs, inspiration, inspire, positive, sunshine award
I got sunshine on a cloudy day ….! Well, almost!
Yesterday morning I woke up with the intention of spending the day in the lovely warm spring sunshine that we had enjoyed on Saturday. I was sure I would be pruning the roses and setting the garden up for spring. Instead much to my amazement, as I opened the curtains I was shocked to see dark heavy clouds and torrential rain! So I decided to have a lazy cosey morning, made a large mug of coffee, some hot buttered toast and settled myself on the sofa snuggled up in my soft fleecy dressing gown.
As usual I checked my mailbox as soon as I started up my laptop and was delighted to see a message from yogaleigh who writes the wonderful blog bluegrassnotes. I was really chuffed because she had nominated me for a Sunshine Award. Thank you so much – you certainly brightened my morning!
This prize is awarded to “bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere”. How wonderful!
As an award winner, there are a few rules to follow:
Thank the person who gave this award and write a post about it.
Pass on the award to 10 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs, and let them know you awarded them.
The thank you is at the beginning of the post.
Answer the following questions:
Favorite Color – Eau de nil – so relaxing
Favorite Animal – Cat
Favorite Number – 4
Favorite Drink – Tia maria with Pepsi and masses of ice
Facebook or Twitter – Def Facebook – I struggle with 140 characters on twitter
Your Passion – Spiritual awareness
Giving or getting presents – Giving, but have yet to find how to wrap a hug!
Favorite Day – Today, always
Favorite Flowers – Roses, the more fragrant the better
I am so pleased to forward this award on to these wonderful bloggers, who for so many different reasons, I thoroughly enjoy their posts, their humour, their compassion and their honesty.
I hope you all find sunshine today!
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35) Busy, busy, busy!
01 Mar 2012 9 Comments
in Evidence, Healing, Spiritual, Uncategorized Tags: Blog, blogging, blogs, crystal, Friendship, healing, healing light, healing rays, opal, opalite, spirit, Spiritual Growth, spiritual healing, Squidoo
I seem to go through phases in my life when everything, spiritually speaking, goes very quiet. At other times I feel that whichever way I turn they are almost shouting out at me, “Wake up – we are here!”.
The problem is that sometimes I have too many activities going on. Before you think, wow, this woman lives life in the fast lane, I’m talking more about catching up on the washing and ironing, sorting out the freezer, balancing the bank account etc, not terrifically exciting.
I feel that recently I have been busy with people, which is wonderful, and I never complain about that, but the weeks just suddenly whizz by and I realise I haven’t been spending the time I feel I need to be moving forward spiritually.
My weekends with Simon are precious and so I tend to keep Saturday and Sunday free for ‘us time’. I spend a day a week with my twin Tina, then I see friends a couple of afternoons a week. Since writing this blog I now follow other blogs and can easily lose a couple of hours a day reading them, replying to them, and researching what they have been discussing.
On top of that I have just started to become acquainted with Squidoo, which is another way of publishing information on-line. Simon’s hobby is photography and he was told about Squidoo a couple of weeks ago, and of course, once he had looked at it he told me I should, so suddenly another few days went A.W.O.L. as I became engrossed in learning all about it.
There are also friends who live dotted around the world who I try to keep in touch with on a fairly regular basis either with emails or phone calls, relatives who live closer who come over for dinner, pets that need attending to, holidays that need researching etc …. the list is endless!
I also have several books on the go. A friend told me about a book I ‘must’ read which is an alternative way of treating thyroid problems, which I have been battling for years, so that book has joined the other three beside the bed that I am part-way through reading. Then I have my beloved kindle which I have become hopelessly addicted to. I see books that I feel I should read, and now, instead of spending a fortune, I can, for a fraction of the price, download them literally within seconds, and ‘bingo’ yet another book to read!
On top of all of this, due to my health problems, I have to take lots of breaks, and if I don’t my body soon decides to enforce longer rest periods, which is unbelievably frustrating when there is so much to do, that in my head at least, I feel somehow I should be able to fit in.
Well recently I have felt slightly disconnected from spirit. I haven’t attended any workshops or circles for months and haven’t been along to any demonstrations of mediumship for almost a month (my wonderful weekend away!). Everytime I have tried to meditate recently I have found myself falling asleep in the chair and waking up with a stiff neck, so that hasn’t had what I would term the desired effect of feeling closer to spirit at all. Spirit though have a way of letting me know they are around, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes not quite as subtle as I would like.
If you read one of my earlier posts, 6) Man in the Mirror, you will know that whilst having a shower one day, I happened to see my spiritual guide in the mirror. Since that time I must admit that at times when I’m going to have a shower I do get just ever so slightly spooked. Often I am not, and happily go and have a shower without a thought, but at other times I just suddenly feel that I would be much happier if Simon was sitting close by.
On Sunday I went upstairs to have a shower and Simon was sitting downstairs watching t.v. I felt absolutely fine, not spooked in the slightest, I had put the hot water on, organised my shampoo, conditioner, hair remover etc, and I was just about to get in the shower when I felt aware of ‘something’. I can’t say I was really that worried, but thought that some music might be nice to take my mind off any weird feelings. I bought my portable radio into the bathroom, turned it on and just couldn’t believe my ears when the tune ‘Man in the Mirror’ boomed out! I think that was quite a coincidence – if there are such things as coincidences – which I gather from a spiritual point of view there are not! I decided that I would be brave and continued to have my shower, on my own, and really felt that I had overcome one of my fears. Fortunately nothing odd appeared in the mirror that time! Phew!
Last week I went to see my friend Kay. She has been very unwell with vertigo for several months and has been rarely able to leave her home due to her unrelenting dizziness. I love to go and visit her as she is very good company, full of interesting stories, and we also share a lot of common experiences from our childhoods. She has had an awful lot to contend with health wise over the last few years and she always amazes me with her positive approach to life. She is one of life’s fighters and I have never once heard her complain or make ‘poor me’ comments, she just takes everything in her stride, looks for the best in every situation and most importantly, looks at how she can help others in the same boat as her. She is one very strong lady!
Well that very morning Kay had been to the doctors for some test results and was told that she was diabetic and that she would need to take medication and change her diet. As we were sitting talking, I suddenly felt compelled to give her healing. I should explain that I am not what I would call a healer at all. There have been a few instances in my life where I have had the same feeling, and always gone along with it, knowing that spirit obviously see a need. I sat there whilst Kay and I were discussing her new diagnosis, becoming increasingly aware of what I can only describe as an instruction, that I should give her healing. I ignored the feeling for a few minutes until it became overwhelming and I really had no choice in the matter. Now, Kay has been ill since last summer, and I hadn’t once felt I should give her healing, so this was quite a new experience for me. I asked her if she would mind and she said it would be fine.
She was sitting down and I stood behind her and placed my hands on her shoulders. Within moments my hands felt as if they were fizzing, and they also felt extremely hot. My whole body became hotter and hotter, even my toes were hot, and I normally have cold feet. Even though my eyes were closed I could see a bright light, almost like a beam, coming towards me. I felt that we were both immersed in this wonderful healing ray. Kay said she could feel the heat across her chest and she too was aware of a light, which she felt was going to her heart. It was a truly beautiful serene time. I kept hearing the word opalite, which meant nothing to me. I tend to ignore anything I hear until I am told it several times, just in case it is my imagination, but I just kept hearing that word. I have never had much interest in crystals and know nothing about them at all, but did feel that this was something to do with a crystal.
I gradually felt my hands return to normal and the heat left me. As I sat down I told Kay that I had kept hearing the word opalite. She didn’t know what it meant either, so we looked it up in a reference book she has about crystals. I was stunned when I read that it is used to regulate insulin!!! My goodness, I just couldn’t believe it. I just love it when spirit gives me pertinent information that I would have never known about before, and when I research it, it proves to be totally correct.
I had always considered crystals a little ‘new age’ and never really thought of them as a serious way to heal or balance the body before. I shall certainly view them with more reverence in future. Hmmmm …. I feel another book or two that will need reading!
Where will I ever find the time?
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34) It’s Only a Number!
15 Feb 2012 12 Comments
in Spiritual Tags: age, Birthday, Blog, blogging, blogs, Everlasting Love, Friendship, opinion, personal, philosophy, reflections, Spiritual Growth, thoughts, Twin, Whitney, Whitney Houston
I’ve just had a birthday. Hooray!
The problem is that I can’t get used to being so ‘old’. Although my body doesn’t exactly feel ‘young’, my head, my mind and my heart does. I’m like a ‘cut and shut’ where bits of me just don’t fit together quite right. My body hasn’t felt very young for a number of years now. Due to a chronic illness I always have pain somewhere and the lack of energy is annoying, but I’ve got used to that over time, it’s been with me for nineteen years, so I should have by now!
No, now the problem is that my body is actually ageing. I’ve noticed the wrinkles deepening and my eyelids kind of folding over, its difficult to describe, but all of my eyelids used to be visible, but now there is extra skin that hangs over them – I’m sure there is a technical name for it – but it’s happened all of a sudden. My legs have never been my strong point, being knock-kneed how I rejoiced when maxi dresses came back into fashion, but now they too are beginning to look like old lady legs. As I’ve aged I’m seeing more and more the family genes take over. Auntie Violet legs – thanks Auntie!
My twin used to be very good at pointing out my short comings, but since her stroke she hasn’t so much and I have been thankful for that. Last Friday when she came over she was looking intently at my hands. Now, she doesn’t often say a lot these days so I normally relish a conversation with her, but on Friday she was not having a good day and was more ‘there’ (wherever that is), than ‘here’, so when she started to talk I was really pleased. “You’ve got”, she looked as if she was frustrated trying to talk, “You’ve got” she tried again, “What am I trying to say?”, “I don’t know sis” I replied, as I often do, because she often asks that. There was another long pause and I always imagine her brain is trying to get into gear, “You’ve got age spots on your hands” she piped up with a big smile, “Oh” I said, a little shocked, “and your hands” she went on, “your hands”, I waited patiently as she gathered her thoughts once again, “your hands aren’t looking so pretty these days, they look wrinkly”. Gee, thanks sis! Well that was certainly worth waiting for!
I hadn’t really looked at her hands before, they are lily white as she has been indoors for almost three years now and she only had one very tiny insignificant age spot. One of her habits since her stroke is applying hand lotion many many times a day, so I must admit her hands do look very soft. Maybe it should become one of my habits too. She isn’t capable of doing any housework or washing up either and I’m sure that plays a big role in my wrinkly, aged spots hand syndrome! Bless her!
I think the reason this birthday has hit me harder than all the rest is that it really is the heading towards sixty birthday, I can’t say I’m in my early fifties anymore, I’ve tilted over the edge of fifty five and fifty six does sound so very grown up! I think, for all of us who have gained some weight, we can look in the mirror and think about when we are slim again, there is a hope that one day we may shed the weight and be back to our ‘real’ slim selves. For me too, there is always the hope that one day I am going to wake up well, that my illness will have scuttled off into the night, never to darken my door again, and I will once again return to the ‘real’ healthy, full of vitality, capable of anything, me. But, looking in the mirror now, seeing my droopy eyelids and, thanks to Tina, being aware of my aged hands, there is no hope that one day the droops will disappear and the wrinkles will all smooth out. I’m not even going to consider discussing the other, more covered up, bits of me, that are patently struggling with age. A girl (or maybe I should at this age say woman) does have to keep some dignity! No, this is it. It really is the beginning of me looking old.
I was chatting to my sister-in-law Wendy just before my birthday. Wendy is sixteen years younger than me (eek, I’m ‘just’ old enough to be her mother!), she is extremely pretty, very petite and super fit. She goes to the gym most days and also leads a very busy life as a hairdresser, a Mum to my two beautiful neices and has a very active social life. She is also, absolutely lovely and great fun to be with. As the years have gone by and we have got to know each other better we enjoy an easy relationship and chat away and discuss anything and everything. I’m so lucky to have her as my sis-in-law. She was asking me how old I was going to be and when I told her she said it is just a number. I laughed, yes, I agreed, but said it was a bloomin’ big number!
This week there was the shocking news of the death of Whitney Houston and it really got me thinking. She had died when she was only forty eight years old. I met Simon when I was that age, and how I would have hated to have missed the wonderful time we have shared together. I have met so many wonderful new people since moving to Hampshire when I was forty eight. For me it was an age when my life turned around, when I had the courage to stand up and be me, to leave an old life and start afresh. I didn’t have Whitneys fame, her talent, her money or her looks, but I did have my own identity, which I sadly feel she was lacking. How sad that her life ended when my new life had just begun. I was thinking that Whitney won’t ever be old enough to be complaining about droopy eyelids and how very fortunate I am to have made it to have a big number birthday.
How sad that so many amazingly talented people just can’t cope with their lives and end up relying so heavily on drugs and alcohol to get through. I wonder how many of them feel lonely, how many question who really likes them for who they are, not what they have or what they can do for them? It must be tough to cope with public adulation when in your heart you are not prepared, when deep down you must know that you are not coping with the success.
I find it strange how many young people say they want to be famous, and yet fame has so many drawbacks, I just don’t understand why anyone would want to be in a position where they can’t even pop out to their local shops without someone taking a snap of them. Where everyone feels they have the right to comment on and often criticise what you wear, who you spend your time with, what you do. What a dreadful way to live your life!
Hopefully Whitney is now beginning a new life in spirit where she will be able to realise how amazingly fortunate she was in so many ways, where she will be able to find some of the joy she had in her life here. I do hope that her soul will heal and with help she will be able to move forward along her pathway. Maybe in her next incarnation she will again have the voice of an angel, but our society may have moved on and she will not be put on such a pedestal, where from such a great height so many have fallen. Maybe next time she’ll happily get to the big number birthdays. Let’s hope so.
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33) Hi-di-Hi Campers!!
06 Feb 2012 9 Comments
in Development, Spiritual, Uncategorized Tags: animal communication, Blog, blogging, blogs, Everlasting Love, evidence, Jay Love, mediumship, opinion, personal, Philip Solomon, spirit, spiritual reading, Spiritualism, spirituality, transfiguration
Simon and I always try to do something different for our birthdays. Over the years amongst other things, I’ve been whisked away for a romantic break to a luxury hotel, we’ve been on the London Eye and Simon has been a racing driver, etc. You get the gist. The whole idea is that our birthdays are memorable events, a special day to mark the beginning of our next year. So, when friends of mine mentioned a Psychic & Spiritual Festival that started on my birthday I thought it would be a unique way to enjoy a get-away and experience the work of mediums that I hadn’t seen before.
As the event was being held right by the coast “Sceptic Simon” agreed to come along, not to attend any workshops or lectures, but to go out and about with his beloved camera taking some landscape shots with his new filters. So, we were two very happy bunnies, full of excitement looking forward to the weekend.
I rang the venue to ask if there was a program as my friends and I wondered if we had to book any of the workshops, but I was told that no-one knows the events until the day they arrive. Goodness, I thought, they must be mega organised! We where aiming to arrive at about 3:30pm and our timing was spot on. We were given the keys to our ‘chalet’ and directions, but as we walked through the car park my heart began to sink when I saw the rows and rows of ‘chalets’ – Hi di Hi couldn’t help but come to mind. Our room was a double …. just … it was so small, and the bathroom was something out of the ark, it was what I would call VERY basic! It was not what I had expected, but then it’s not what you expect that makes life richer!
I was keen to look at the programme and we couldn’t help but laugh when the saw the evening entertainment billed as Scott Paige and his High Octaine Show-Team. Seriously, I felt like we were in a time warp and we had unknowingly been time travelling back to the mid 60′s!
After the disappointment with our chalet we really didn’t expect much of the food, but have to say that it exceeded expectations. The service was great and the food, although plain, was well cooked and we certainly weren’t going to be starving. We were given a table number and had to sit at the same table for the whole time. We were sat opposite two women, Julie and her aunt Sylvia. Julie was a florist by trade, with a very dry sense of humour and a houseful of assorted rescued pets with rather strange names. Sylvia had a very fast mind, was great company and relayed some very amusing spiritually based stories. They were both real characters with great personalities and we felt we were so lucky to sit opposite them.
The first evening there was a medley of mediums demonstrating until 10pm. I hadn’t heard of them before, but I gather they are quite well-known. I must say that the evidence that was brought through by Philip Solomon was amazing. He was giving people not just names and memorable dates but addresses as well. I can’t say I agreed with everything he said about his beliefs on spiritual matters, but he did say that we all have our own views and that we must respect that. I was really pleased because even Sceptic Simon was marginally impressed, and that is quite something!
Simon toddled off on the first morning to go and take some pics and I stayed with my friend Annette as we were working out which lectures or workshops to attend. The problem seemed to be that there were never enough chairs in the rooms and they kept moving who was working where, which is quite confusing when there are about five hundred people all trying to find their way about. I wasn’t too worried about missing any of the workshops as I hadn’t heard of the tutors before, but one person I particularly wanted to see was Jay Love.
I had met Jay several years before, when as students at the Arthur Findlay College in Stanstead we had discussed our spiritual development. So many of our experiences had been shared it was quite uncanny. He struck me then as a real down to earth kind of chap. He was a gentle soul with kind eyes and had a wicked sense of humour. He didn’t take himself too seriously, although it was obvious how much he respected spirit. I had never forgotten him and a few months ago had found him on the internet and we had been in contact via Facebook, where I had learnt that his development had led him to physical mediumship and he was now able to bring through spirit using transfiguration.
For those who don’t know about this form of mediumship, it is when the medium goes into trance and spirits communicate and also temporarily materialise, usually over the mediums face, by utilising a form of energy that it is believed the medium manufactures within themselves. It is rare to be able to see this first hand.
I had desperately wanted to see Jay demonstrate his physical mediumship, but as we arrived at the designated room we were told we would need to bring our own chairs and bluntly told by the lady on the door that she would be locking the door in one minute. This didn’t give us enough time to go and get the chairs so we ended up in another room seeing a lecture about ghost pictures!
Most of Saturday I saw various people do various things, nothing that I found totally astounding, it was ok, but I was deeply disappointed not to have seen Jay. Having said all that though there was certainly a good mixture of differing disciplines for you to take a look at, everything from pure spiritual communication to paranormal investigation to tarot, to sand box readings. The choice was quite amazing.
In the late afternoon Annette and I found ourselves at a bit of a loose end and, almost by accident, found ourselves in a lecture about animal communication, which we weren’t planning to attend. As we walked in there were two pictures on a board. One was a very nice looking cat and the other looked like my old dog Sam. I even said to Annette “goodness, that looks just like Sam”. We sat down and began listening and much to my surprise the lady, who was actually a medium, explained that she had only just drawn the pictures and these two animals wanted to communicate with their owners. It wasn’t at all what I had expected. Several people tried to accept information about the cat, who was a tabby called Tigger, but eventually the information given narrowed it down to one particular lady in the audience and she was given the picture.
Then the medium, Raye Edwina Brown, started to talk about the dog. She said that his name was Sam! My hand shot up immediately. She explained that in his old age his back legs had given way and he had to be put to sleep, but that this happened at home. That was exactly what had happened to Sam. She said it was literally only a few days before he died that this had started, which was true, as Sam’s back legs gave out on a Friday and I called the vet on Monday as he couldn’t stand up. She even gave the date of the year he was born. I was so chuffed. He sent me his love and told me that he was pleased that I had so much freedom in my life now. I was called to the front to collect my picture. I waited until everyone had left and went over to thank Raye and she took a photo of me with the picture of Sam and said she is going to put it in her magazine!
This had made my weekend, I didn’t really expect very much more. I had loved Sam so much and felt so lucky that he had come through. I had given communication from animals to people in readings in the past and had seen their delight, and now I knew exactly how they felt.
The evening was not so good. To me, the mediums were more interested in being entertainers than mediums and I did feel on a few occasions that they were not respectful to either the spirits or the audience. I watched three of them and decided I would rather go back to the cold chalet than sit and watch anymore. I was so annoyed that it was typical that Simon was there, and this did nothing to improve his belief in anything spiritual!
On Sunday I had already decided that I wanted to go home. I was cold, uncomfortable, fed up with all the last-minute changes and to be honest the mediumship the night before had really made me question so much that I felt quite unsettled. I did though want to have the opportunity to see Jay give a demonstration and on the program it stated that he would be in the Lounge giving a mental mediumship and spirit guides talk at 11:30am, so I thought we’d go home after that. Annette and I were heading for the lounge when I saw Jay walking away from there, I stopped him and asked where his lecture was going to be. He told me it was going to be in the Games Room and that there should be enough chairs. So, we headed off there, found Jay, but again no chairs! Annette went out and found some patio chairs to sit on and we sat expecting a mental mediumship talk. We were so lucky as Jay was planning to give another demonstration of his transfiguration gifts. The whole experience was nothing short of phenomenal. Jay gave a really good talk beforehand, quite thought-provoking, and then his trance guide arrived and introduced himself. He was nothing at all like Jay, although he did share a sense of humour. The transfiguration was just mind-blowing. Grown men and women were obviously emotional at communicating with their loved ones in spirit and being able to see their faces materialise over Jay’s face. What an amazing gift he has!
We left just after lunch and were home in the light, turned the heating up and enjoyed sitting on a comfy sofa!
Annette told me that the last night had been the best evening and it had been a shame I had missed it. Jay had demonstrated his mediumship abilities and she said his evidence was brilliant. An Irish medium, Sharon Neill, had given evidence that a member of the audience had waited over fifty years to hear and Annette said everyone in the audience had felt extremely emotional. She told me that Sharon had then finished by singing The Power of Love which she said was sung beautifully. It did seem like I missed out, but then I was needed by a friend first thing this morning, so I was pleased I was at home and able to help her.
It was an interesting weekend with mega highs and too many lows. Am I pleased I went? Yes. Sam coming through and Jay’s demonstration were the highlights of my weekend. Two fantastic experiences that I know I will never forget. Just such a shame that it hadn’t been a little more comfortable and a little more organised!
.
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32) Legal Beagles
29 Jan 2012 10 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: Blog, blogging, blogs, choice, choices, consideration, education, Ethics, evidence, inspiration, inspired thoughts, judgement, kindness, law, life's lessons, opinion, responsibility, thoughtfulness, thoughts
We all think we are right! It’s so true. We all think we are right because we see everything from our perspective. It is how we are. We often find great difficulty in looking at a situation from someone elses point of view. It is very challenging to try to put yourself in someone elses shoes, to look at the world the way they see it. I feel it is impossible, even no matter how hard we try, to truly appreciate what someone is going through, to actually feel their joy, their pain, their concerns. And yet, even though we can never completely understand what it is like to be someone else, we somehow feel we have the right to judge them.
Many of us make judgements about people’s physical appearance. We make comments about their choice of clothes, hairstyle, weight etc. Even if we don’t verbalise what we are thinking, most of us do still think it. How many times have you seen someone and within a millisecond a thought rushes through your head about how that person looks? It is a habit that is so easy to get into. Even worse we think we know how to dress them better than themselves! How can we always be so sure? I might never ever in a million years wear a pink leather mini-skirt with high heels and wear bright red lipstick – but who says that I am right? My choice in clothes most probably looks as dull as dishwater to someone else.
Have you met a friend’s partner and immediately made a snap judgement about them? Just a look, just one word, or the way they dress can be enough for your brain to warp into judgement mode. Even the way someone speaks, their accent, can lead us to make sweeping judgements that could be totally wrong!
Our magazines and newspapers are full of judgements about people in the public eye. Reporters judge everything about people: their lives, their love lives, finances, children, homes, even their political views. Unfortunately it is rarely objective, and usually biased to entice more readers to read all the latest gossip, no matter if the ‘victim’ is a pop singer, a politician or a member of the royal family. All appear to be fair game. Even countries are attacked in the press, their cultures, their traditions, their politics. It is felt that we are able to judge anyone/any country who/that does not do as we think they should, who does not comply with what we consider is normal or correct.
I enjoy listening to lively debates on the radio and it surprises me how often I change my mind as I carry on listening to different views. To begin with I am sure that Mr ‘A’ is making perfect sense, then Mr ‘B’ will chip in with his remarks and I start thinking, well, actually that really does make sense, then listening to Mr ‘A’ respond, I am once again seeing and appreciating his point of view. From listening to so many over the years I have come to the conclusion that it is very difficult to tell the right viewpoint from the wrong one. Even to the point where I wonder at times if there always is a right or a wrong one! It all depends from which angle you are looking at it. As an onlooker it can be almost impossible to make a decision of who is right, but if you are personally involved then it becomes even more difficult to be objective.
My husband had to complete jury service recently. Although he couldn’t discuss the case with me, I knew he was finding it very difficult to make a judgement about the ‘accused’. Some days he would come home and feel he had totally understood what had happened and would appear relaxed. On other days he would come home obviously agitated after further evidence had been submitted into court which threw a spanner in the works, and suddenly the case didn’t appear as black and white as it had a couple of days before. In the final days of the trial it was evident that Simon was really struggling. He is a fair-minded man and was so concerned that he would come to the wrong conclusion, that because of his judgement an innocent man may spend time in prison. Then he would be worried that if he judged the man innocent, and he was actually guilty, that he would be walking free in society, and what could be the possible consequences of that. After much debate the jury found the accused guilty and Simon said he was so pleased when his previous convictions were read out and he had carried out similar crimes several times before. He felt that they had come to the right decision. His relief when it was all over was amazing. The experience had really brought home the massive responsibility that there is in making judgements. Goodness knows how I’d ever cope if I had to sit on a jury!!
I do wonder what makes someone decide to commit a crime. I have no idea of the mindset or thought process that you would go through to plan to take part in something criminal. I avoid arguments and conflict as much as possible but it has crossed my mind whether someone decides to be abusive to someone else, either physically or verbally, or if it just happens, almost beyond their control. I do however know that I am extremely fortunate that I am not them, but somehow I used to think I had the right to judge them, not that I would normally tell others what I was thinking, but in my head I would be making judgements. What right did I possibly have to do that?
I was sitting quietly one day, thinking about what is right and what is wrong, when I received the following words from one of my writing guides.
Look kindly on your fellow-man
Do not judge too harshly
For where he walks you too may tread
And understand his pathway
Just a few lines, but I feel it is a such powerful message. I have had these words run through my mind so many many times over the years. When I catch myself making a judgement about someone, suddenly I’ll hear the words “Look kindly on your fellow-man, do not judge too harshly ….” I immediately try to consider where that person is in their life and always ask myself “Who am I to judge?” I cannot possibly imagine what made them make their choices about their lifestyle, their behaviour. I have not shared in their life and come to their conclusions. I try to accept others as they are, accept they have their own opinions and have their own roads to follow.
Of course I’m not talking about our formal legal systems, these have to be in place, and we accept that our society chooses people to make legal judgements. That is totally different to the judgements we all make that I am talking about here.
It also made me think about the soul choices we make we enter this incarnation. We can’t all choose to be kind and thoughtful or we would not be able to learn what is right and what is wrong, how to behave with care and generosity towards others. How tough it must be to live your life as one of those people who are always on the wrong side of our man-made laws. How tough to wake up in the morning and know in your heart that you have been cruel or mean. We can’t all be the same, we are all unique in almost every way and I say thank goodness for that. In our diversity we have literally hundreds of thousands of choices throughout our lives, and who should ever judge us for them? Only ourselves. My guides know that we are not saints, that we have our human foibles, that we will most likely always make judgements, I feel it is a rare person who never does. But, if you do find yourself judging, please just think of the words I received, and try not to be too harsh!
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31) Do My Eyes Deceive Me?
19 Jan 2012 3 Comments
in Development Tags: Arthur Findlay College, Blog, blogging, blogs, education, evidence, mediumship, spirit, spirit guide, spiritual, spirituality
Although I was used to being aware of spirits around me since I was extremely young, sometimes even catching a glimpse of ‘someone’ or ‘something’, that was usually in my peripheral vision, it wasn’t until I was in my late thirties that I had more of an understanding that there was far more to spiritual communication that just feeling them around me. In a very short time I seemed to go through a massive awakening of what I would eventually call my spiritual vision.
It all happened around the same time that I had met one of my spiritual guides, Minyon, in my first ever spiritual meditation. That in itself was a massive change in my thought patterns. Suddenly I wasn’t thinking that I may be accompanied on my life’s journey by spirit, I absolutely knew that I was. At the same time as meeting Minyon, I also had the first experience of actually asking spirit to come forward and give me evidence from a loved one that I could pass on to a total stranger. This too had happened, and so easily, that again, my beliefs had no alternative but to change. I had gone from believing that spirits could communicate when they had passed from this life into a spirit form, to totally and utterly knowing that they could. I was overwhelmed by the strength of the communication and the difference it had made to my perception of the physical, material world in which we live.
I felt as if I had been asking and asking for real proof of spirit for years. Not anything that be could be a possible coincidence or a lucky guess, but absolute unequivocable proof and I had received it, with the added bonus of meeting Minyon.
I could see him as plain as day in my meditation, and almost felt a bit silly explaining to the circle that he was a native American, I thought they might think I was some kind of nutter. The great thing for me at that time was that I had read very little of anything spiritual and had no pre-conceived ideas of what a spiritual guide may look like. The only guide I had ever really heard of was my Mum’s guide, Topsy, who Mum had told me was a gypsy, so I was more than surprised to see that Minyon was a native American!
We had two large greenhouses in our garden at the time. I was working away pricking out seedlings and placing them in their interim homes, ready for growing on. I had the radio playing, happily singing along, immersed in my thoughts of plans for the summer garden. I was always at my happiest working with plants with my hands in the soil. My Dad had always grown as much as he could from seeds or cuttings and I have the most fantastic memories of sunny spring days with my sister Tina and I helping him on his allotment. We would spend hours deciding what was to be grown and then the day would arrive when it was time to sow. I was so excited knowing that our work would result in the most delicious fruit and vegetables for the whole family, never mind most of the neighbours too! I had always been in awe of the wonder of nature, how a tiny weeny seed could become a magnificent flower, or a towering tree or something as juicy as a melon. I was always fascinated by the way they just decided to grow, to put out roots in the soil and with a little water and tender care, they would blossom.
On this particular day the sun was low in the sky and was shining directly into the greenhouse. I was about the pull the roof blinds over a little when I noticed something very odd. There was a row of tall trees about thirty feet away from where I was and there appeared to be a wide border of golden light surrounding each of them. To begin with I felt sure that it was a ripple in the glass of the greenhouse, but even if I moved around it was still there. Then I thought it was the low sun which was causing some sort of light refraction, but when I walked out of the greenhouse I realised the sun wasn’t on the trees at all. I stood for a while gazing up at them and the border became wider and wider until there was no separation between the trees. It was like a see through bubble of a shiny beautiful golden light. I had never seen anything like it before. As I turned around back towards the main garden I realised that I could see this border around all the plants! Some of them had a much brighter colour than others, some had what seemed to be a slight pinkyness around them too. I was fascinated. The more I looked the more I could see it. I finished my work in the greenhouse and walked back to the house, all the while looking at all the plants, trees and shrubs along the way. Now this does sound strange, but it was almost as if they were smiling at me.
The following day I woke up and was seriously quite shocked to see that the left half of my bedroom was bathed in a pink light. I thought that I must have something wrong with my eyes. I covered my right eye but could still see the half and half bedroom, then I covered my left eye, it was still the same. I got out of bed and went and looked in the mirror in case my eyes were bloodshot. They looked perfectly normal. This half and half lasted for only a couple of minutes and then the room went back to normal. I was beginning to really think that I must have something wrong with my sight. The rest of the day everything looked perfectly standard and I thought it must just be one of those strange things that seemed to be happening to me.
The next morning was even stranger. I woke up and saw that the bedroom ceiling was pink. It was normally white, and so I looked around the room to see if anything could be causing a reflection. Nothing seemed to be able to do that. I kept looking at the ceiling. I stood up and looked up at it, I laid on the bed and looked. No matter what I did it was still pink. I was really getting concerned now and made an appointment to go and see an optician. In all my life I had never experienced anything like it and I was worried that something was seriously wrong with either my brain or my eyes.
I had to wait a few days to go to the appointment and in that time I kept seeing odd glows of pink and also started seeing what I can only describe as small bubbles of blue lights moving across the room. They would appear from nowhere and then just disappear as fast as they had arrived. I wondered if they were ‘floaters’ which is a physical problem with your eyes. I was nervous of being checked over, but also had a sense of relief thinking that they would definitely find something wrong and that it would be fixable. I explained the problem to the optician and she looked rather bemused. She said she had never heard of anything like it, but she would reserve judgement until she had carried out a full examination. After going through all the different steps of the eye test she told me she could find absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes at all, she gave me a ‘crazy lady’ kind of look as I left. I was perplexed to say the least.
Over the next couple of months I saw lights all over the place, sometimes just one or two, often several. I was almost getting used to waking up to find the room was a different colour from when I had gone to bed. I had to assume that it was part of my spiritual development. Laughingly I imagined a team of spiritual decorators working through the night with magical paints that only lasted a few hours!
I went on a mediumship development course at the Arthur Findlay College in Stansted, and met a fellow student, Jay, who was a real character. He had a warm and bubbly personality and was so easy to talk to. I wasn’t in the same class as him but had heard on the grapevine that he was a brilliant medium. We were walking around the garden chatting when he started to tell me about the odd vision problems he had been having. They were exactly the same as mine! It was just wonderful finding someone who had been through the same. He had also gone to the opticians and the doctors and they could find nothing wrong. He also felt he was at the beginning of his more intensive development with spirit. It really seemed far too much of a coincidence.
I hadn’t really spoken to anyone about these odd visual experiences. I was already thought of as rather peculiar by my family and friends and certainly didn’t want to add fuel to the fire, but having spoken to Jay I felt I must find out more. I had begun to meet some wonderful spiritually aware people through the home groups I had started attending and felt safe when talking to them about the many unusual occurrences at that time. They explained that what I was seeing were auras and that all life forms have them. They are an extension of our life force, and the colour of them can indicate how well, how happy, how concerned etc we are. I was amazed that I was able to see them, and so easily too. I was also told that the bubbles of light were most probably a physical manifestation of spiritual energy.
Now when I am aware that spirit is around I often see the small bubbles of blue floating past me. I feel that it is confirmation for me that they are around. I am used to seeing the beautiful golden lights around any kind of plant form and consider that it is a blessing to be able to see their life energy. I am often shown colours when I am working spiritually and have seen colours radiate from healers hands. Sadly though, the spiritual decorators haven’t been around for a while …. it seems that it’s down to me now if I want to re-decorate!
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30) You’ve Got a Friend
14 Jan 2012 17 Comments
in Evidence, Spiritual, Uncategorized Tags: alone, Blog, blogging, blogs, Carole King, Everlasting Love, evidence, family, friend, Friendship, heart, James Taylor, loneliness, love, reflections, spirit guide, spirituality, thoughts
How many times in your life have you felt utterly alone? Felt there was no-one who was there was for you? Felt that no-one could understand what you were going through?
Sometimes the very fact that you put a brave face on it, no matter the tough times you are going through, can actually back-fire because everyone thinks that everything in your life is fine. Or, maybe people think that you are one of those lucky few who can cope admirably with anything that is thrown at them. Could it be that maybe your pride is getting in the way of being honest and you prefer people to think that you are ‘strong’ ?
How difficult it can be to be able to reach out when you desperately need a friend.
After I left Devon and moved to Hampshire with my twin sister, Tina, and her family, I was in a very odd ‘friend free’ zone for the first time in my life. After 26 years I had finally plucked up the courage to end my marriage and within a matter of weeks many of my friends were doing exactly the same! It was as if a cosmic switch had come on somewhere and we all decided that enough was enough. My friends are scattered throughout England, and very strangely, all were going through their own very similar difficult and often traumatic times. After they had separated from their husbands they had all stayed in the same towns, so at least they had their local friends around them for support, but due to my ex’s threatening behaviour I decided it was better (and I felt safer) moving far away.
Friends that I had been in regular contact with for years were busy dealing with their own problems and I felt that I couldn’t bother them with my own worries at that time. Tina and her husband, Woody, had adopted six learning disabled children, whose ages ranged from two to fifteen, so they too were pretty busy, sorting out the often complicated special educational and medical needs that the children required in a new area. It was extremely rare for me to get more than a minute or so alone with Tina for a chat, there was always someone who needed her.
Tina and Woody had rented a very large old house so that the children could each have their own bedrooms and fortuitously it had a two bedroom annexe that was perfect for me. Although it was not as grand as the main house, it too had large rooms, all decorated in a very gaudy colours by the previous tenant. The carpets alone were enough to give you a headache. The main lounge was fluorescent yellow, the second bedroom, vibrant lime green and my bedroom was bubble gum pink!
Although I had not one jot of regret for the decision I had made, and knew I was fortunate to have a roof over my head, I suddenly found myself in an alien environment. My ex-home was hundreds of miles away, I had none of my treasured possessions around me, none of the comforts of my previous life. I didn’t have one stick of furniture so went to the local D.I.Y. store and bought the last two fold up garden chairs they had as it was the end of the summer season. They were vibrant yellow and green so almost ‘matched’ the carpet in the lounge and as a bonus they came with cushions, which looked far more comfortable than they really were as I soon found out when I sat on one when I got home. I had never sat on such lumpy cushions. I also bought a table lamp and a small table, so that I could have somewhere to put my coffee, and a small radio so that I could at least have some music to keep me company. I had virtually no money, no income and most of my clothes were still at my old house, so not much at all. My sister had loaned me a single bed and bedding which looked lost in the massive bedroom.
I remember one evening sitting on one of my lumpy cushioned chairs looking out over the garden which was a tangled mess of laurels and holly trees at the time. I remember feeling so terribly lost. I knew that all the legalities involved in both the divorce and the selling and splitting of assets from my marriage were obviously not going to happen overnight. I felt I was in limbo and as if I didn’t belong anywhere, like I had no roots. I don’t think I’d realised how much I had relied on the roots of my life, the roots that come with familiarity of where you live, the friends you see, who you are with, what you are doing everyday.
It is often at times like these when we have to learn to become super resilient, super self-reliant, it is almost as if the universe conspires to put us in a place where we have no option but to dig deep, to delve into our soul’s reserves and find the strength from within ourselves to overcome our fears and concerns.
The realisation of my uncertain future really hit me that night. I concluded that I could look at my life in two opposing ways. I could think how dreadful it was, sitting alone in this cold quiet emptiness that was devoid of anything that meant anything at all to me, or try to look at my new circumstances as a blank canvas, ready for the new adventures of my life to be captured in bright cheerful warm colours.
I was so fortunate in that I felt that I could call on spirit, my guides, my helpers, my loved ones who had passed, and asked them if they could come close. I had a need to know that I did at least, still have my spiritual roots to build on.
As I was sitting there, deep in thought, thinking of my spirit friends, the sun was setting and the most beautiful deep pink and golden rays of the sunset came streaming through my window. I felt my spirits lift, and my immediate thought was that old saying, ‘red sky at night, shepherds delight’ and felt a smile from within.
I shook myself out of my melancholy moment and put on the radio. Of all the songs that could have been playing I heard James Taylor singing one of my favourites. I had no doubt that spirit had played a part in my putting the radio on at that exact time, the choice of the music, and the station I was tuned to. I felt my heart fill with love and comfort as I knew I had received a spiritual hug. Whenever I feel alone now, when I start to miss those that I loved so dearly, I think of that magic moment and the enormous effort that I am sure my family and friends spirit-side put into getting that message to me so clearly. I know that all I have to do is close my eyes, think of them, and they will be here, right beside me.
Written and performed by Carole King, but actually made famous by James Taylor, “You’ve got a friend”.
You’ve Got a Friend
When you’re down and troubled
and you need a helping hand
and nothing, ooh, nothing is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me
and soon I will be there
to brighten up even your darkest nights.
You just call out my name,
and you know wherever I am
I’ll come running, oh yeah baby
to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer or fall,
all you have to do is call
and I’ll be there, yeah, yeah, yeah
You’ve got a friend.
If the sky above you
should turn dark and full of clouds
and that old north wind should begin to blow
Keep your head together and call my name out loud
and soon I will be knocking upon your door.
You just call out my name,
and you know where ever I am
I’ll come running to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer or fall,
all you go to do is call
and I’ll be there, yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey, ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend?
People can be so cold.
They’ll hurt you and desert you.
Well they’ll take your soul if you let them.
Oh yeah, but don’t you let them.
You just call out my name,
and you know wherever I am
I’ll come running to see you again.
Oh babe, don’t you know that,
Winter, spring, summer or fall,
Hey now, all you’ve got to do is call.
Lord, I’ll be there, yes I will.
You’ve got a friend.
You’ve got a friend.
Ain’t it good to know you’ve got a friend.
Ain’t it good to know you’ve got a friend.
You’ve got a friend
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29) Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!
03 Jan 2012 8 Comments
in Lessons for Life Tags: heart soul spirit journey, spiritual, soul journey, Blog, blogs, blogging, spirituality, education, inspiration, thoughts, philosophy, Spiritual Growth, family, optimism, lessons
How easy it is to be a moaning Minnie. I’m sure we all know someone (or ….. gulp, even ourselves sometimes) who get into moaning mode all too easily.
When I look back, which is far easier than looking forward, I know there have been times in my life when someone has asked ” How are you?” and it’s been all too easy to forget all the positives in my life and have a good old moan. I honestly believe that there’s nothing wrong with that occasionally, we all go through difficult, challenging, heartbreaking times when I think we should not chastise ourselves for moaning, especially to our closest friends who are trying to help us, but it’s the habit of moaning that I’m writing about today.
I used to have a Father-in-law who could have moaned for England. Seriously if there was a gold medal in moaning he would have been on the podium each and every day. No matter what you did or what you said, he’d find something to moan about. When we were first married we went to visit him in our old car, he complained that we were obviously not working hard enough and should be ashamed at driving an old banger. A couple of years later we drove up to see him and we had a new car. I couldn’t believe it when he started moaning that it was obviously alright for us, swanning around like we were above everyone else because we had a new car! We just couldn’t win.
His wife, my ex-Mother-in-law, was also a pretty good moaner. She was staying with us for a while (too long!) and I remember asking her if she had any preference for lunch, whether she would like a hot cooked meal, or a light cold lunch. She said she didn’t mind. I even asked her if she was sure and she said yes, anything would be fine. I was immensely busy at work so prepared a salad with some homemade bread. She scowled as I put the meal on the table. “I would have preferred a hot meal” she moaned. I can honestly say that in the twenty-six years I knew her, it was a very rare event that she made a happy, upbeat or positive comment about anything. They were obviously well matched. In fact, thinking about, I can’t think of one instance where she was genuinely pleased with her lot. How very sad.
I believe that this personality trait actually ages you. When I first met my ex in-laws, when I was in my early twenties, I assumed that they had been old parents when my ex-husband was born. Their whole house felt grey and dowdy. Wrongly, I presumed that they were ancient, which to me at the time was anyone past sixty (how our perspective changes as we head toward the higher ‘tens’ ourselves). In reality they were exactly the same age as my parents, and had in fact been extremely young parents. You just would never have believed it had you met them. The difference between them and my parents was that mine had the wonderful knack of finding the humour in everything, including themselves, they never took life too seriously. Their houses were always colourful and full of life – they were not what I would call ‘grey’ people!
Dad had nicknames for everyone, my sister was Prunella Pimple Face and I was Fish Face Charlie – we never knew why – we just were! He had a wonderful sense of timing where humour was concerned, saying just the right word at the right time. Very dry and extremely observant, he did catch a few people off guard at times, which made it all the funnier! He went through some incredibly traumatic times in his life, both during his childhood, during his time in the war and in latter years, due to his health. Amazingly though, through everything, my Dad always found something positive to say about every event in his life.
He had to undergo life threatening surgery when I was in my early teens. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and had to undergo surgery to remove one of his lungs. This was in the late 1960′s and the medical treatments at that time weren’t as advanced as they are now, so it was very dangerous surgery at the time. Dad had undergone a routine medical for the organisation he worked for and much to his horror a large shadow on his lung showed up on his chest X-ray. He was taken into Harefield hospital and underwent an exploratory operation and they confirmed to Mum that he had lung cancer. They gave her the choice whether to operate and possibly prolong his life by a matter of months, or to just leave it and let nature take it’s course. Mum, after much consideration and heart searching, chose the operation. Thank God she did, as when they operated they found that Dad didn’t have lung cancer after all. He had an unusual form of tuberculosis in a cyst in his lung. He was in hospital for quite a long time on a large ward. Everyone commented on how he was such a lively spirit and how he lifted the atmosphere. Within a couple of days of the surgery he was cracking jokes, mainly about himself, and had everyone in stitches (pardon the pun). I remember the sister on the ward saying that she would miss him so much when he went home because he had made their lives so much more enjoyable and how his warmth and humour had affected everyone so positively. I was so proud of my Dad.
Mum too had difficult times but without fail she always managed to find something positive to say. She used to quote Thumper from the film Bambi – “if you can’t say something nice don’t say nothin’ at all” , which is dreadfully difficult to adhere to at times (see above!), but she really did try to live by this, apart from when she and Dad were arguing, and then all their rules went out the window!
When Mum was busy working, more than full-time at times, she and Dad agreed to employ “a lady who does”, in other words, a cleaner. I think it was Dad’s way of avoiding helping with the housework! They employed a woman who left notes for Mum every time she left the house. She complained that the vacuum cleaner wasn’t working properly, or that the polish Mum used wasn’t the right one, or that the broom wasn’t good enough, the house was too hot, the house was too cold etc. The list was endless. Dad called her “Mrs Moan-a-lot”, not to her face of course, but within the family. The awful problem was that the name stuck and we could never remember her real name, which was embarrassing at times!
Mum and Dad had real highs and lows financially throughout their marriage. Usually the highs where when they were both working for large companies and the lows were sometimes when Dad would start a new business and things didn’t always go so well. They both took every opportunity they were ever given, even emigrating to Chicago in their mid-forties. They sold their house and gave away everything they owned and off they went with huge smiles to start their new life. Try as they could, they both hated living there! They came back a year later and in that short time the property market had gone wild in England. Neither of them had employment and their money, having been exchanged into dollars and back again, was nowhere near enough to buy a house again. They moved into a bed sit and looked upon it as an adventure, both of them optimistic that something would ‘turn up’.
Much to everyone’s amazement, but no surprise to them, a large flat came up for rent in the town they both loved, Twickenham. They had enough to put down the deposit and moved in to the two top floors of a large Victorian house. Within a short time they both managed to find work they enjoyed within a short distance of their new home. Two years later the landlord offered to rent them the ground floor flat as well and they jumped at it. He was fine about them restoring the two flats back into one very beautiful large house. Another year on and the landlord suddenly needed to liquidate his assets and offered Mum and Dad the whole house at a crazily low knock down price. Of course they couldn’t refuse. They bought the house, did a little work on it, and sold it six months later for a massive profit, putting them in a stronger position than when they had gone to America. Mum took great delight in telling everyone that she had known everything would be alright. Through all the ups and downs I never once heard them complain. Dad used to say it was better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. Mum being more of a romantic would quote, “it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”. Looking back I realise how amazingly lucky I was to have such a pair of positive optimistic parents, which at the time I suppose I assumed everyone had.
Strangely I feel like my journey through life has always shown me two sides of everything. I do believe that my parents were a couple of old souls, who made light of their problems and put a positive spin on their difficulties and challenges. I wonder if my ex-in laws were younger souls. In reality, they had very little to complain about it, but moaned about inconsequential things most of the time. My ex-in laws were pessimists about everything and saw life as a dull routine to be gotten through, whereas my parents were invariably optimistic and saw life as exciting and enlightening. How fortunate I was to have chosen them. I can appreciate why I feel that life is full of lessons because that is exactly what Mum and Dad taught me, and importantly, they taught me to ignore the dull routine and always look on the bright side of life!
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28) Great Expectations
31 Dec 2011 8 Comments
in Uncategorized, Lessons for Life, Spiritual, Development Tags: spirit, spiritual, Blog, blogs, blogging, inspiration, thoughts, reflections, Friendship, Spiritual Growth, New Year, New Year Eve, 2012, 2011
Will your world change after midnight?
Every New Year’s Eve there is a global feeling of anticipation that changes are afoot. No matter where you are, who you are with or what you are doing, it is almost impossible to miss the dawning of the new year. All around the world there are massive celebrations, huge displays of fireworks, parties arranged and a feeling of camaraderie that only exists for maybe even just a few minutes either side of midnight. If you are in a large city or even at a local event, complete strangers may well hug and kiss and you and wish you a happy new year.
And then, the morning arrives, and all is back to normal. What happened to the optimism of the night before? Where has the camaraderie gone? Is there any perceivable change in your life from yesterday?
No other species on our planet celebrates New Year. I’ve never seen sheep dancing in a field at midnight! So why do we feel the need to make such a big deal out of a change of year in our calendars? Is it that we have an intrinsic need to focus on the possibility of change for good? Is it that we are dissatisfied with our lives and want a better future? Why is there such a negative spin in our news through most of the year, and maybe just a glimmer of positivity on New Year’s Eve? Why do we look forward to the New Year rather than spend time celebrating the year we have just had? How many people will look back at the year that is coming to a close and be thankful for the experiences they have enjoyed, the spiritual advances they have made, the new friendships formed, the new lives that have begun, the understanding and compassion that has been shown to them, or they have shown to others? It always feels to me that it’s all about looking forward to the new and getting rid of the past. What a shame.
I just read a wonderful blog written by a woman who has been making huge changes to her life. About accepting that she didn’t have to be superwoman after all, that she can feel free to follow her dreams. I felt that this arrived in my inbox at just the right time to be included in this end of year posting. She importantly mentioned the notion of ‘having it all’ and as I commented on her post, I thought long and hard about that well used phrase. Why can’t we have it all, I wondered? But, most importantly, we first have to qualify what having it all truly means to each of us individually. It will be different for each and every one of us. None of us have to adhere to the classic examples portrayed in the media, to the general consensus, to society’s view of what this phrase means. No, we can take it and shape it to suit us.
My interpretation of having it all had to change drastically when I became chronically ill, when my life had no option but to become smaller. Suddenly, having it all had to alter to fit in with my physical capabilities. My expectations had to change. It took a long time to adjust, but now I can say I truly feel fulfilled, feel loved, respected and accepted. I am true to my beliefs, to my spiritual goals, to my souls desires. That to me is having it all. I don’t try to be something I’m not and hope that I don’t expect that of others. My days of trying to be superwoman are long gone!
Instead of only focussing on what the New Year may bring to our lives, just on New Year’s Eve, why not think of every new day as the dawning of a new year. Feel the optimism and the camaraderie with others throughout the year. Consider what we, those we love and those who are in need, really require, and try to work towards that. When we go to sleep at night remember to thank spirit for the positives we can take from the day and ask what our expectations and intentions should be for tomorrow. Look at our lives and learn from our experiences. Feel if we have managed, in our own way, to have it all, even just for that one day. Sense if we have inspired others and if we have been at all instrumental in them finding fulfilment in their lives.
Many people spend much time in thought and then make long lists of resolutions for the new year. Maybe they find that the list will motivate them to bring about change in their lives. Maybe their resolution list is in fact more of a wish list. How many of us have written this list and targeted massive changes that are due to take place from 1st January only to give up within a matter of days or even a couple of weeks? The resolutions soon become forgotten.
So, for this change of year, as the clock passes midnight, and 2011 becomes 2012, I am not going to make a resolution. I am instead going to make a promise to spirit. I will promise to treat each day as a new dawn knowing it has the spiritual potential for the greatest of expectations.
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Blogger Awards!!!
28 Dec 2011 19 Comments
in Blog Award, Uncategorized Tags: award, Blog, blogging, blogs, education, Friendship, individual, inspiration, Kreativ Blogger Award, thoughts, Versatile Blogger Award
I was amazed and delighted to receive the Kreativ Blogger award from ‘Among Ghosts’ AND the Versatile Blogger award from ‘Life as I know it …”!!! They feel like a belated Christmas pressies – how wonderful!
I gather that I now have to nominate other bloggers to receive these prestigious awards – so not only am I the grateful receiver, I am a judge too – lol!
So, here is my list and I do hope you will take the time to take a look at these blogs. I enjoy them all for many different reasons. Not all of them follow my own beliefs to the letter, but then that is what makes life interesting!
Six blogs for the Kreativ Blogger Award: 15 blogs for the Versatile Blogger Award:
http://www.crabbyoldfart.wordpress.com/
http://www.happinessforall.wordpress.com/
http://www.askamedium.wordpress.com/
http://www.anyonething.wordpress.com/
http://www.oldereyes.wordpress.com/
http://www.whisperingwordsofwisdom.wordpress.com/
http://www.siannaphey.wordpress.com/
http://www.jamesdez.wordpress.com/
http://www.showard76.wordpress.com/
http://www.lifewithhiccups.wordpress.com/
http://www.growingupweirdmedium.wordpress.com/
http://www.dark2light.wordpress.com/
http://www.delajus2.wordpress.com/
http://www.complexmuse.wordpress.com/
http://www.prairiewisdom.wordpress.com/
Also, part of receiving these awards, is that I have to share 7 things about myself for the Versatile Blogger Award and 10 things that not everyone would know about me for the Kreativ Blogger Award….. hmmm … tricky or what?
Ok, here goes:
1) I’m a ‘cougar’ – lol – I don’t feel like one but I gather I am as my husband is 13 years younger than me!
2) Strangely, my Mother-in-law is the same age as my ex-husband … isn’t life odd?
3) My body is one age (too old for my liking), my heart is years younger – see above!
4) I adore animals and if I won the lottery I would love to set up an animal sanctuary.
5) My favourite flower is a rose – I have masses of them in my garden, all repeat flowering with lots of delicious scents and many beautiful colours
6) My favourite smell in the whole wide world is freshly cut lawn
7)I love music and always have music playing – I dance too (but that’s not for the faint hearted)
Readers for the Versatile Blogger Award should stop reading now, for the Kreativ Blogger Award you are ‘allowed’ to read on!
8) I have a very deep singing voice – I sound like Rod Stewart or Alison Moyet
9) I don’t like my legs so I always wear trousers or very long skirts
10) I have a wicked sense of humour
Now all I have to do is work out how to send this information to all the above mentioned bloggers! It took me over an hour to sort the award pictures, and I haven’t yet read up how to pop them on my blog yet …. but I can do that later!
Thanks once again to ‘Life as I know it…’ and ‘Among Ghosts’, I love both your blogs and look forward everyday to see what fresh insights will drop into my inbox.
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27) Making New Memories
24 Dec 2011 10 Comments
in Lessons for Life Tags: blogs, blogging, love, inspiration, reflections, Father, Everlasting Love, Twin, Christmas, Mum, memories, brother
Mum always made certain that even though she had three children she would make time for each of us individually. These times weren’t necessarily important dates or special occasions, just time we all had alone with Mum whilst we did everyday things.
Mum and I always used to make the mince pies for Christmas whilst the rest of the family would be in the lounge watching television. In those days we would always wear a pinny when we were cooking. I don’t know why really, because these days not many people ever do. When we put our pinnys on it was almost a sign that we meant business, we were undertaking important and valuable work and we were set apart from the rest of the family in their civvies.
It was during these Christmas baking times that we would often chat about Mum’s life as a young woman, where she lived, what she did, who she shared her life with. She had the most wonderful knack of talking about how life affected her when she was the same age as us. It bought to life, in our minds, her history. When I was growing up I always seemed to think of Mum and Dad’s childhood in black and white, like an old movie. I always thought that their clothes would have been scratchy for some reason. Strange what goes through children’s minds.
Mum had a difficult childhood, bought up by her Dad and a variety of Aunts, until her Dad married when she was nine years old. She adored her Dad more than anyone in the world and would often become tearful when she talked about the wonderful Christmas’s she shared with him. He had died before I was born, and she never really managed to overcome her grief. I found that very hard to understand as a child, especially as I had never met him, so he didn’t seem real to me, even though Mum told me so much about him. It was as if she was describing an old film she’d seen.
Something though that Mum said, that has always stuck in my mind, was that she always felt it was important to make new memories. Not to erase the old ones, but to add to our itinerary of memories, to make our own histories. That seemed strange when I was a young girl, but as I’ve grown older I do understand what she meant by that.
We all have times in our lives that our thoughts go back to, especially at Christmas. Times we wish with all our hearts that could be repeated right now. People that have passed through our lives who we miss and wish that we could be with once again. In Mum’s case it was definitely time that she spent with her Dad. She would have given the world to spend even just a few moments with him once more.
I cherish the memory of my Dad singing Christmas carols on Christmas Eve the last Christmas he was alive. We were at a very grand party and the local choir were singing traditional carols. We were in a huge elegant room with a grand piano and we were sat on the type of furniture you normally only see in stately homes. The type where the ropes are around them to stop the public touching it! It really wouldn’t have mattered where we were, my memory is of my Dad’s twinkling blue eyes, his warm smile and his deep rich voice. I was so very proud of him. I would give anything to be back at that party with my Dad.
I cherish the memory of Mum and I cooking Christmas dinner, drinking too much sherry, and laughing and giggling like a couple of teenagers whilst we jived around the kitchen to ‘Rocking Around the Christmas Tree’.
I cherish the memory of my daughter rushing into my bedroom first thing in the morning, so excited to tell me that Father Christmas had been, with her arms full of presents that she wanted to open on my bed.
I cherish the memory of Ray, my brother, playing his guitar, making up his own silly verses to Christmas Carols, whilst drinking his favourite brandy and coke. ‘Merry Crimbo’ he used to say.
I cherish the memory of my twin sister, Tina and I, waking up to find chocolate santas lined up around our beds and beautiful party dresses, one made for each of us, hanging on our wardrobe door.
So many memories of wonderful Christmas’s, but now, as they say, those days are gone. It’s tough. I know it always will be. If I could just snap my fingers and be back there just once more …………..
Now, I have new memories to make. Memories where in the future I’ll look back and long for these days. Where I’ll wish with all my heart to be able to share these times once more. That’s the Christmas I’m going to have with the people who are in my life right now, the people I share these special times with, the people I hold dear and love and cherish. This Christmas will be part of my history.
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