ENVISION // RELEASE // DREAM

News Years Eve was nothing short of Magic this year.  I pulled my advent window word in the morning and it was Envision.  After having spent doing almost nothing for two days but envisioning, it felt soooooo confirming.  For the past few days I have been having wild visions of living at my parents house, and bringing it back to life and full of love.  For so long now I have felt it would be too hard to live there b/c of both of them dying there.  But as time has gone on, I have been feeling more and more led to finding deep healing out there.  I picture bringing people together out there.  Reuniting my parents friends and family each year for easter like my parents used to do.  Having woman gatherings, full moon gatherings, yoga gatherings, art gatherings, herbal gatherings... so many things.  Like a place for healing.  All of these visions feel so real and so needed, yet so unattainable with so many odds stacked against us.  So what I have decided to do is to just put my 'envisions' out there, and allow the universe to open the doors if this is where I am led to be.  I am putting my trust in the holding of the great spirit, to know my higher purpose, and whether or not this is the grounding it needs to thrive.

After lots of envisioning, I decided to pull a spread on the meditation of the very idea of moving out there.  These are the cards I drew.  The Past: Pierced Shield (the tower) The Present: Seed (the fool) Future: Vision (the hanged man)  Reading through these (all major arcana) there was so much in depth information.  I will be going back to read again and again.

Then for our New Year's celebration, James requested that we do a releasing ceremony like we did last year.  He really enjoyed it and I thought it was so sweet that he initiated it. 

We both spent some time writing down all the things we wanted to let go from this past year and then we released them into the fire.  We took turns reading them out loud and putting our intentions out there.  It always feels so good sharing like this, b/c its things we might not talk about otherwise.  It was beautiful to share this with James.

I had the sudden urge to release some of my dad's ashes into the fire.  I have yet to let go of any of them b/c I have just not been ready.  I felt like I could finally do it without losing it.  James helped me open up the box, and I mixed a handful of his ashes with some lavender buds, two rose petals and two pieces of white sage.  One for him and one for my mom.  I spoke some words on releasing his spirit, releasing him and myself from the sadness and anger of his decision, let him know how much I loved him, and wanted him to be free.  Then we released the ashes into the fire and just watched for a little while.  It felt so good, and no tears were shed.  Although it would of been okay if they were, it made me happy that I was able to do this with such a clear mind.  (

this is my first new years I did not drink any alcohol and it felt pretty good!

)

We also made a page of things we wanted to cultivate for the new year.  I thought James baby one was super cute and had to photograph the memory.  I decided not to burn mine so I could look back on it through the year.

Now, if you are still here, I have the most incredible experience to share.  After this wonderful releasing of my dad's ashes, he visited me in my dreams.  It was the most intense real dream I think Ive ever had.  I remember dreaming I was laying in bed.  It felt more like I was awake and actually experiencing it, but I know it was a dream.  I saw my dad's face right in front of mine, real close.  His hair was long like when he would grow it out.  He placed his hands on my cheeks.  He told me he was sorry for leaving, he told me he loved me.  I told him to.  I don't remember all that was said, but I remember feeling like he was genuinely sorry and full of love, and I too for him.  I let him know he could go be with mom now.  Then he jumped onto the image of a vinyl I was holding.  It was a dark vinyl with lots of tiny white stars all over it.  It reminded me of my favorite Donovan album Cosmic Wheels that I have kept as art in my home since I was a teenager.  (I stole it from my parents).  When he landed on the vinyl, he was a while sillouette of a person.  I saw him leap and join another white sillouette and they ran across the page together where they joined a few more white sillouettes.  I just remember feeling like it was him joining my mom and meeting up with their other friends who have passed on. I saw them turn into a bright light that beamed across the page and then they all turned into stars.  The stars began to move and swirl.  Then they all spiraled into the mouth of a fetus.  It looked like a sonogram image where you just see the sillouette of the baby.  The stars entered the belly of the baby.  Then I woke up.  I remember feeling such a deep connection running through humanity and all of the earth and stars and beyond.  Like we are all cosmic starseeds, all a part of each other.  And also the feeling that when we have our baby, my parents will be starseeds within them.  This was truly an incredible experience.  I woke up this morning feeling like everything is going to be okay.

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RESISTANCE

I have been meeting myself with alot of resistance lately.  I didn't even have a word for it until I was editing this photo for this post.  It just clicked in my mind, and opened my eyes to what it was I was feeling.  For several weeks, or more, I have had some blockages.  I have signed myself up for so many things I wanted to work on.  Soul things, ecourses, yoga and hooping groups, etc.  And each one of those things I made intentions to work on, have come to a screeching halt.  I feel like I have said yes so many times, to just look back and say, damn... another thing I forgot to do.  Or, another thing I felt a resistance with.  The more I think about this word, the more it feels so much deeper than just those little things I sign myself up for.  But it reflects so much into my core being, and feelings, thoughts and beliefs I have held within myself over the past few years, and some over a lifetime.  

I am going to try to hold these spaces in my heart with gentleness, instead of continuing to mentally beat myself up.  The old scars and bruises are no longer working for me.  It's time to cleanse and purge my old thought processes.  Make room for new growth.  Make room for more love.  And I even feel resistance to this as I type these words.

One of my all time favorite quotes has always been one from Leonard Cohen... 'there is a crack in everything.  that's how the light gets in'.  Such a powerful line.  I made a typography several weeks ago, and just shared it on The Bohemian Collective the other day. 

How do you face your own resistance to growth or change?  

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Yellow Billed Cuckoo - Spirit Animal >>>

Yesterday on the way home from the post office, we came across this beautiful bird in the middle of the road.  I instantly knew it had been hit, but didnt realize it was still alive until we drove past.  So I told James to turn around so we could get him out of the middle of the road before he got hit again.  When I went to pick him up, I saw blood, and he didnt attempt to move, so I thought it must of been pretty bad.  I scooped him up, and unknowing to James, brought him back to the car with me to take home.  I was worried if I just moved him to the side of the road, he would straggle back there, and I felt in my heart that if he did die, I wanted to be able to send him off with love.  I didn't know if it was the right thing to do, but my heart told me it was, with the best intentions. 
After we brought him home, I sat him in the grass to see if he would try to move or fly.  For a while he just sat there.  But luckily, when I went to move him, it hopped.  Then it hopped a little bit further.  Then it mustered up the courage to hop up onto a little low branch... After sitting for a moment at each step it made, it would venture a little further, until finally it flew up into the tree!!!  Here he is below up in the tree.  After sitting and recouping for a long time in the tree, it flew off!  I was sooooo happy to know that he made it, even if he was relocated.  If I had left him in the road, he would surely not be with us today.  Ive never had such an up close personal experience with a wild bird before.  I talked to it alot while it was up in the tree.  I told it to please come visit me... although, Im pretty sure I wont be seeing him in my backyard.  Cuckoos like to remain hidden in the woods.  But I would be delighted if he did!!!


Since we are currently studying animal spirit guides in the Intuitive Heart Sanctuary, I definitely saw this one as a sign.  I usually do anyway, since I feel such a connection with animals... but evermore so this time.  It was very interesting to read about this particular bird and its meanings, especially knowing the cuckoo is a close relative to the roadrunner, whom came to me preceeding my dads death. The fact that this little birdy made it out alive, and its a yellow-billed one, not a black-billed one, tells that it came to show me a new beginning, not an ending this time.  Im curious to see how this unfolds.  I feel blessed to have met him yesterday.

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Camfire Song - Words from my Heart >>>

Yesterday was full of a chain of events that struck my soul.  First the music I was listening to, then an amazing conversation with a friend with loud and clear messages coming from my mother, to reading another friends blog post.  I went outside by our campfire and wrote my heart's campfire song for the day.  Not really a song, more just thoughts... But here is what I wrote:

"Although no fire burns inside this firepit, just being in this sacred space ignites my soul.  Today I was reminded of some things by some amazing soul sisters of mine.  That its time to take these broken bones and ghosts I carry with me to the grave.  Even my new Rocky cd I listened to about 10 times today spoke of taking our mistakes and old wounds to its own funeral.  Its time to gently place these fears and hurts I carry around on my shoulders every waking day, deep underneath the ground - then fiercy and intentionally walk away.  Or like my mom once said about being buried - let them push up flowers from the ground.  When we asked my mom if she wanted to buried or cremated she said buried, so that she could push up flowers from the ground.  

I think Ive even allowed my sadness to get in the way of really hearing my parents voices.  Knowing that their souls are still here with me to be called upon at anytime.  After so long of not seeing them, hearing them, huggin them, its easy to forget that.  And then out of the blue, an earth angel sends me a reminder.  Im so grateful for the few soul sisters Ive received in my life in the past year.  I know in my heart they are all a gift from my mom.  Even though Ive never tangibly seen, touched or even spoken to them - their souls speak volumes to me through mere words online.  Just by reading my dear friend Rain's words today, I was inspired to stop working for a moment and come outside to write.  Now Ive spoken things in my heart, felt the sun on my back, listened to birds singing to each other, felt a warm breeze across my skin, smelled the earth... A big ahhhhhh, and a feeling of gratitude"
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Before this, earlier in the day, I had an intensely magical conversation with my friend Julie, who felt some messages from my mom to me... without going into alot of detail, it was about work, focus, perserverence, happiness in life, and having the courage to pull through with somethings I have felt too weak to do on my own.  And when I went out to write in my journal that afternoon, the page I opened up to were words I had written last year...
Ironic?  I think not.  A gentle reminder to myself, from myself.  Amazing.  Then reading Rain's words on her blog...
"but may our tremblings, beloved, 
become the raw rhythms of our sojourn; 
may our fearful quakings thrust us into movement, 
and may those first, halting, 
barely-there-slow-motions 
ignite energy for our feet, 
for our life-dance, 
for our story.
let us take old, painful memories,
those hurtful moments 
which wrap us like a shroud, 
 tight, immovable, bound
and cast them into a great fire ~
and with this flame we will light our way.
let us awaken! let us say yes! to life ...
not merely to living, 
but to becoming alive."

After listeing to Rocky Votolato's Ghost Writer lyrics all morning:
"bury the dead past disappointment in the cemetery of mistakes,
you cant forget just let the pressure turn your charcoal heart into a diamond reflecting the light,
dont let it get crushed into dust"

I would say I had a day of moment's, in between all of the hard work I did yesterday.  It was definitely quite a full day, and I got soooo much accomplished.  Same with today.  Sooo... I just want to say thank you to the universe for these little moments of clarity.  Ask and you shall receive, as my mom always told me.

PEACE,
Laura