Dreams Really Do Come True

The idea of dreams coming true has been very much on my mind and in my heart the past few weeks as we enjoy the amazing blessing of our new office suites here in St Joseph, Michigan. See my previous post: Welcome Home.

Yesterday afternoon, I had a wonderful girls night out with my sister, Janis. We were guests of  our friend and colleague, Jana Serbenski, at the Paw Paw Michigan Young American Summer Camp show.

I was moved to tears by many features of the event: a special time for my sister and me (we both shaved our legs for it), the talented and enthusiastic performance by the Young Americans, and the equally talented and doubly enthusiastic performance with the 200 campers ranging in ages from 8-18. 

If you are not familiar with Young Americans, check out the information about them online. They are an amazing organization that promotes a better world through music and dance. Be sure to read about their educational mission.

That cast of forty young adults made every single child believe he or she can perform! Most remarkable is that they did this in just four days. These kids’ lives are transformed. 

The performance was inspiring, delightful, and it has a positive financial impact as well: At the end of the show, Paw Paw High School Performing Arts was presented with a check for over $11,000. In the five years since Jana held the first camp, over $80,000 has come back to their school. So much costs, but this event pays. Amazing….

 

Jana was a Young American. She had the dream to make this happen in her community. It was a worthy dream. Her dream offered benefits to everyone involved. The fruition of that dream took teamwork, but it was fun, and this is only the beginning.

Those same elements are woven into our new space at 815 Main Street Suites. No wonder I was so emotional through so much of the evening.

As I was congratulating Jana, she said, “Every school district should have a Young American Summer Camp.” I agree wholeheartedly. Jana is dreaming again, and I can see that dream coming true. 

This is a magical time of our lives.Take some time to open up to what you can dream into our world. Dreams really do come true.

Welcome Home!

My last blog post (Walking Our Talk, June 5, 2016), ended with the quotation, "Whether we realize it or not, our paths are being guided." 

5 days after we received notification of our need to vacate the office space I had shared with my sister, Janis, and brother-in-law, Larry, we had agreed to lease a beautiful new office space at 815 Main Street. Thirteen days later, my move had been completed. 

How did our finding the perfect space happen almost instantaneously?

As friends stopped in to bring their blessings of energy and support, we all recognized the deepest truth: Our hearts had felt this space for years.

More than one person teared up walking through the rooms, and feeling the sacred sense of home. (Kathy Zerler admires the energy quilt in the waiting room.)

We have already been blessed by our first Saturday morning yoga class in the lighted room. It has a very special energy—a result of each of us having realized the importance of nurturing our own inner beings. I remember Dr. Betty Lue Lieber saying it this way, "Our service must also serve us." 

We hope many are blessed by this wonderful new space. It is significant, just knowing it is here. And when you come for massage therapy, energy balancing, Healing Touch, to read or write or to just be, we know you will be filled with awe and gratitude for how our paths are being guided, even at those times when it feels like loss. 

We certainly are…

Walking our Talk

"Whether we realize it or not, our paths are being guided."

This quotation was included in one of those email "thought for the day" messages. 

We grew up hearing, "Do as I say, not as I do." Instinctively, we understood the flaw in that philosophy, yet taking to heart the truth that we teach what we are is not always first in our minds. At times, however, we do recognize we are invited to walk our talk with greater integrity than ever before. 

As my colleague and friend just said, as healers we are called to not add more pain or distress or fear to the world. If you have not seen my June 2016 Beyond Mastery article, I invite you to read The Truth About Healing so you will know the rest of the story.

 

I don't usually attend Thursday's Gentle Yoga class, but this week I had a very strong sense I needed to be there. In the meditation group following yoga, a class member shared a remarkable experience. In a hurry to meet someone—she purposely avoided engaging with a stranger who was coming in to the church just as she was leaving. Details will be shared later in a Sacred Story, but the point is she received an intuition she was to go tell that man God wanted him to become a priest.

In the way "Providence" perfectly provides, she almost instantaneously received confirmation the man had come to that church solely to pray, seeking discernment about that very question! 

I also told the meditation group about a colleague who was recently desperately desiring to have acupuncture for her hospitalized husband—another Sacred Story to be published—and within hours of stating her desire out loud, what he needed was provided (with great results!). 

Shortly after I arrived home, I got a call from my sister that our landlord had just told her   we have to move out of our offices by the end of the month! Given the circumstances, it would be understandable to feel frustrated, irritated, and even downright angry. 

However, perhaps it is time for us to walk our talk. We can move past the habitual emotional reactions and affirm the truth, "Whether we realize it or not, our paths are being guided."

She Made It!

Mark Twain's words certainly are fitting for the 2016 Stewart's Creek High School commencement program, at least for my granddaughter. Courtney, my youngest grandchild (and only granddaughter) decided near the end of school last year she did not enjoy high school and was going to do whatever it took to be able to skip her junior year and graduate an entire year early. 

She enrolled in an online class to see if she liked that method of learning. She did not. So she went to school five days a week—all summer long. She made it.

This past week was a whirlwind for her as she was busy taking exams, going to graduation rehearsal, attending "praise band" practice, running errands, and hanging out with friends. She was even late for her own party because her boss forgot to give her off. She was a little late, but she made it. 

That is the most important thing, isn't it… She made it.
  
Courtney was ready to enter the world about a month before her actual birth date, but the new house was not ready. Her mom said to her (in the womb), "Momma needs you to give me a few more weeks so I can get your room ready for you." She made it. 

Courtney was about nine years old when her mom was divorced. Every week she moved back and forth, essentially living out of a suitcase. It was not easy, but she waited until she could drive to live with her mom full-time. She made it. 

On more than one occasion, at school Courtney experienced the most painful kind of challenge: immaturity, unkindness, disrespect, and outright cruelty. She made it.

On graduation day, she sang with the praise band and church including a solo. We were all packed like sardines into that pew. Most of us (including Courtney!) had more than one tear as she sang Laura Story's song, Blessings:

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not,
This is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

Courtney knows more than many seventeen-year-olds about blessings that come through rain drops, healing through tears, sleepless nights, and mercies in disguise...
 

It is a blessing that we can all look back and say to her, "YOU MADE IT."

So very proud of you, Courtney. Gampie and I love you to the moon and back!

Healing Crisis

"During times of crisis, like today, we can evolve within our generation." 

~ 
Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D.

As I write this I am listening to Medical anthropologist Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., share Ancient Ways to Ultimate Wellness, part of the Hay House World Summit 2016. It is very significant to me right now given I have been in a significant healing crisis for about ten days now. 

Villoldo is talking about his own healing journey, sharing how you can turn on the healing energy within your body and totally build a new body. We certainly are willing to do that, aren't we….

My current healing journey was kick-started by my participating in Listen to Your Mother (See Healing Salve of Storytelling - Listen to Your Mother) as I told the story of my mother's being diagnosed with syphilis at the same time she discovered she was pregnant for me. I will let you know when "Loved and Wanted" is available on YouTube.

This crisis is bringing me back to my roots: energy medicine and the healing of ritual…. 

Hearing Villoldo talks about the importance of healing our intestinal flora to balance the emotions before doing ritual to release them from the brain. Emotions are just programmed responses from the past.The old brain is the ritual brain.You may want to check out One Spirit Medicine. He suggests breathing painful emotions into toothpicks, then burning the toothpick, leaving us with feelings that move easily through our energy field.

Today I found this journal entry from March 19, 2015. It is from Gratefulness.org:

"If I had my life to live over again,

I would ask that not a thing be changed,

but that my eyes be opened wider."

 ~ Jules Renard

I plan to share details about my own healing journey in the June Beyond Mastery newsletter. You can sign up now to receive the newsletter automatically, if you aren't already. 

Meanwhile, here is a closing quotation from today's Angelic Messenger Card # 36 Fulfillment:

When the rational parts of your mind become too dominant, your entire focus stays trained on your own needs and accomplishments. You find every activity in your life becoming stressful, competitive, and unfulfilling. This is because you believe that you are responsible for, or being required to change everything that you come in contact with to fit your own needs and requirements. Try engaging in a conversation without judging what is said, only enjoying what takes place. See how long you can keep your attention on anything other than your own reactions and responses. Lasting fulfillment comes from accepting other living things and enjoying their offerings without the need to change or alter them. [Meredith L. Young-Sowers]