The perfect people come to us at the perfect times. Teachers, poets, philosophers, friends - they flow in when we need them, we recognize them in the places where our souls match. That's how I feel about Jackie Stewart and the incredible Essence of Wild.

I'm honored to share my story on Essence of Wild today. (My heart charka blooms with joy as I write this!)

Please check it out and consider signing up for the Barefoot Breathing E-course: A journey into the heart of nature for soul-deep reconnection.

What I Wish My Tarot Clients Knew "Everyone has their turn at the wheel.  Life is always in motion.  Don’t get angry if life doesn’t always go your way.  Roll with the punches.  This too shall pass."

The Best Way to Network: Serving People "Some people believe you have be selfish in order to succeed. That in order to be a good networker, you have to look out for yourself. I disagree. The best networker is a servant. Everything else is just sleazy self-promotion, and in the long run, it doesn’t work."

Why I stopped meditating: acts of rebellion + intention "Meditating doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be more compassionate or loving, it just means you can call yourself a meditator."

A Baker's Dozen Truths About You and Your Work "When you attract the people who invest in you, and who benefit from that investment, you prosper. The world prospers with you, in a loving, stewarded way."

I'm thrilled to be on the Miracle readiness site today, chatting with Megan Monique about some real life action steps you can take to experience the presence of miracles in your life. Please come over and join us. 

(I'm also going to be sharing messages from the guides and angels on Megan's Monthly Meditation Circle call on June 1.)

Today's conversation is a continuation of last week's subject - What can you do when someone else is draining your energy and how do you get yourself back in alignment after it happens?

If you're feeling like someone or something is leaving you depleted, let's do some distance Reiki, attachment-cutting and energy clearing. Sometimes your spirit needs a good washing!

As always, thank you for joining me here at our little corner table. I love to hear from you. Do you have a question for the Coffee Circle? 

Ah to experience what we are- our Essence that is beingness itself - and then walk with a foot in that knowing, remembering what we are even as we live & delight in our little Who-ness in the world. Forgetting & remembering seems to be the path as we exercise the muscle of keeping one part of our attention on our Being breathing in the scent of the ever-unfolding rose of Essence no matter where we are. I can feel it in my chest- that continually opening rose of the heart, growing impossibly larger, splitting open my smaller notions of what I am, loosening the tight fist of trying. - Oriah Mountain Dreamer

There is no time frame on any of this.

Whatever it is you're doing here, whatever it is you're dreaming, whatever it is you're activating within you. You don't have to push it. You don't have to rush it. No one is keeping score.

The novel I'm writing has been in me for a long time. I wrote the first lines of it five or six years ago. It's gone through many evolutions. I've put it away a lot and tried to forget it. I've given up on it, cried about it, crumpled its pages into little balls and thrown them against the wall. I've opened my files and thought, this is utter shit. I've changed characters, taken out pieces of the plot, wondered if it even had a plot, wondered if it needed one. I've prayed about it, begged about it, pulled cards about it, ignored it. And, in quiet tiny candlelit corners of my heart, I have loved it.

I was thinking the other day about why I don't have any tattoos. I love tattoos on other people. My friends have the most gorgeous artwork on their bodies, and when I'm with them, I have to fight the urge to run my fingertips all over their skin. But I've never gotten a tattoo because of my fickle nature. You may have noticed, I like to change things. A lot. And the thing I change most? My mind. I can love something one day and feel eh about it the next.

2012 is my year of Essence.

I set out this year to find out what is of the essence for me, what is of the utmost importance, what is at the heart of my work and my life. Partly this is about business and a desire to craft copy that accurately explains what it is that I offer. Partly this is about my personal life and a desire to clear away the literal and figurative clutter. Partly this is about energy and time, and a desire to let go of anything that is taking up too much of either.

So, I set my intention and spirit did the rest.

Four months into the year, my priorities became crystal clear to me. I knew I had to finish the novel. 

There's so much I want to do. I have no shortage of ideas. But now, it's this. It's this now.

For the first time since graduate school (I graduated fourteen years ago), I am spending entire days writing fiction. I am immersed in this book and it's not for any reason other than, I must do it.

Each day, I sit down at my desk. I turn on an appropriate playlist and my salt lamp. I sip my coffee. I open the file. It would not be correct to say that I lose myself in the writing. What happens is that I find myself. I'm writing a novel. It's an invention, but it takes me to into the territory of my past. The characters are fictitious, the story never really happened, but the writing of it takes me into deep truths. It takes me into memory. It shows me how far I've come, how I was never really doing nothing. I was always doing something.

I go back, in the writing, and remember what it felt like to believe that I was lost, what it felt like to be out of alignment with source, confused, in pain, angry, selfish, choked. I remember with clarity and compassion. I remember with accuracy and forgiveness. And I feel myself integrating. I feel all aspects of my life -- my experience, my self, sliding into alignment because of the writing.

As I've been working on the book, I've felt an activation in my sacral chakra and in my throat. I've felt a rising of energy. I've felt waves of energy surging and pulsing through me - as if I'm being sent distance Reiki - only a thousand times more powerful. There's nothing to do but open to it, be awed by it, cry, be grateful.

And I feel myself feeling, once again, the need to change the design here.

I've changed my website a billion times. Every time I do it, I'm pleased -- for a couple of days. And then I become unhappy with it because it doesn't feel like an accurate representation of me. And so I change it. Again. This, I've attributed to my fickle nature, the reason I don't have a tattoo.

But I'm beginning to see it another way.

Because I'm working on this story, and I'm experiencing this incredible spiritual energetic activation, and I am integrating, and I'm thinking that the reason the design of this site has never quite worked for me is because I've been too segmented. I've chosen threads - aspects of myself or my work - and woven the design with that thread while unknowingly ignoring part of my truth. 

I've looked around at what other people do and tried to make myself and my work fit into that so that what I'm presenting is the truth, but also careful.

Fiction writing can't be careful. It can't be cautious. It's scary and risky and wild and that's the energy that's feeding me now.

It is my mission, my passion, my great desire to share my spiritual journey with you.

But there is no dogma I wish to perpetuate.

And there is nothing I wish to hide.

I will no longer quiet parts of myself.

I didn't even realize I was doing that until I started spending entire days writing fiction.

It's not about how good or bad the book is. It's not about publication or validation. It's not about success or failure. (Maybe the book is utter shit.) It's about the process. The process is sacred, and taking action on this project, deciding to see it through, dedicating myself to it, is a key that has turned open a door in me that I couldn't open any other way. It is the writing of this book that has brought me closer, everyday, to my essence.

It has taken me a long time to get here. 

So what?

I wasted tons of time doing less important things when I could have been doing this instead.

So what?

I change my mind a lot, I question things, I go down pathways then take a turn then turn back again. I walk a winding path.

So what?

It's my path.

Walk your path. Do your thing. Tell your story. Double back. Make mistakes. Rewrite. Wait. Try again. Forgive. Walk your path. Do your thing. Let the wild part of you sing into the night.

I look at this website and I think, I want a blank slate. I want to start again.

I look at my life and I realize, I want that everyday.

I look in my heart and I know, that's what we're given. 

A blank slate.

Everyday.

In Sitting Still, a Bench Press for the Brain "Forty-three years, one retirement and a second career later, Ms. Splain, who lives in Massapequa, N.Y., and goes by the first name Surabhi, is still practicing. And like many other meditators, she says she believes that it has not only expanded the boundaries of her consciousness, but that it has also had beneficial effects on her brain."

3 Psychic Concepts I Believe are Bullsh*t "Anything with dogma, I automatically discredit."

The Metaphysics of Social Media "In these unstable times of global change, we have the choice of how we participate in the societal shift. We can use the amazing tool of social networking to, in Gandhi’s words, be the change we want to see and directly impact the outcome of these interesting times.  With compassion, intention and awareness we can help bring into being a more enlightened society."

5 Intuitions About Love & Sex You Shouldn't Ignore  "Your entire body–not just your brain–acts as an intuitive receiver, so the more conscious you become of your whole body, perhaps through a discipline like yoga, the more likely you are to tap into realities outside of your immediate setting. "

Maurice Sendak Had Little Tolerance for Bullshit, and Other Fond Memories "Sendak dismissed the notion that children were simple creatures who were easy to please and believed that most children's literature was crap. He would occasionally respond to letters from fans with original illustrations, and was famously delighted by a letter he received from the mother of a child who had received such a letter; according to Sendak, the child loved his drawing so much that he ate it, and that was the best compliment that he possibly could have gotten."

Finding the Motherhood of God "I began to pray for and meditate on a feminine aspect of God to whom I could relate."

I have a guardian angel named Elijah. He is a healing guide - he works with me in my healing practice - but he also works with me, the individual, and the issues I'm healing in my own life.

The other night, I slipped into the bath and began walking, in my mind, through a beautiful, sacred garden. There were other angels, other guardians of mine in the garden,  and they walked with me until the grass and pebble gave way to sand and I was standing by the ocean. There, on the shore, was Elijah.

Impossibly tall.

Impossibly bright.

Impossibly strong.

Love.

He embraced me in his arms of light and we sat together and for a little while, I poured out all of my worries and fears and concerns to him while he laughed.

In the physical world, this may be an odd reaction, but in the spiritual world it is comforting and true.

Because what is there, really, to worry about? And isn't it funny to waste energy on it?

It's time for my novel to be finished. Or time, at least, for me to give birth to it, to release it, to complete my journey with it. I'm working, but it's hard. It has always been difficult, this story, and it remains so, but I don't have a choice in the matter of whether or not to tell it. It wants to be born. It must be born. And the time is now.

Jen Violi asked this amazing question on her facebook page not long ago. I can't find it to quote it exactly (I'm sorry, Jen), but it was something along the lines of, Why does your story need to be told?

It was a question that reminded me of origin, of the moment I first sat down with a pen and paper and began to tell this story. It was a question that reminded me of purpose, of fire, of unapologetic truth. That's the wave I want to ride on through to the completion of this thing.

But it's hard.

And confusing.

And I get scared. 

So I asked Elijah, What is I need to know right now around the writing of this book? What do I do?

Write the truth, he said. It's closer than you think.

There are people who need this story, he said. Keep going.

And this was all, of course, good. It was comforting and beautiful, but I am cutting a path in the wilderness here. Writing is a blood sport. I want to know for sure that my guidance is really guidance and maybe, the small petty part of my brain started to think, maybe being hugged by a giant light-filled creature and told that I am on the right path is just wishful thinking.

So I asked for proof.

And Elijah laughed, as he is wont to do.

If you are really you, I asked, then send me a sign. Please.

All right, he said.

Not a feather! I added. Something unmistakably you. Your name.

All right, he said.

I finished my bath, which included standing for a long while (in my mind) under a healing waterfall, then lying (in the physical world) on my bathroom floor. 

I drank a jug of water and, dressed in pajamas, came downstairs to sit on the couch with the dogs. Tracy went next door to work on a project, and I flipped on the TV.

I decided on a show, settled in, and within five minutes, the main character has spoken the name Elijah.

Well. (Can you hear him laughing?)

That's how it works. 

Life isn't segmented - spiritual over here, non-spiritual over there. 

There's nothing you can't bring into spirit. There's nothing you can't say or ask. There's no limit to the love, the support, the proof.

Your mind can come up with a million ways to doubt. Your soul can come up with a million reasons to believe.  As with all things, the choice is yours. Which one feels better? Which one gets you where you want to go?

The truth is, maybe my novel doesn't matter to anyone but me, but it does matter to me.

So I'm going forward. I'm cutting the path. I'm listening to my wild heart and I'm doing so in the knowledge that I'm protected, guided, and seen.

What more is there to ask for?

Work With Me

Do you want to know more about the messages your spiritual allies have for you? I offer intuitive readings, Soul Sparks, and a full spiritual healing package. If you are a Reiki practitioner, connect with your guardian angel with this warm and loving attunement.

It's Coffee Circle time! Pull a chair up to our table. Today, we're talking about energetic boundaries and how to protect your energy when you encounter people or situations that leave you feeling drained or overwhelmed or otherwise utzy.*

A couple of visualizations for you:

If you'd like some assistance with energy clearing, I can help. 

I offer a variety of distance sessions for clearing and flushing cords of attachment. 

Remember, your life belongs to you. The clearer you are about your energetic boundaries, the better you can do your work in the world. 

I get so excited every time I see a question for the Coffee Circle zipping into my inbox. Do you have one for me?  

Use the comments here to join in today's conversation, and I'll see you 'round the table next week!

Distance Healing - Permission or No Permission? "In a state of Being you are the purity of a beautiful, radiating light. You are the sun."

KUNSTHOFPASSAGE FUNNEL WALL

How to be Defenseless "We’re walking mirrors. We show each other our own truths, our own humanness. When we defend ourselves, we’re denying our authenticity. We’re being fake- but more importantly, when we’re busy defending ourselves, we can’t see that the other person is hurting."

Don't Miss It "Luckily, true beauty is eternal and even ephemeral beauty is seasonal. So, if we are lucky, in nature we can simply go somewhere else to see what we have missed."

Confidence "So the next time you face certain anxiety, check your mind. Has it raced ahead to the future or buried itself in the past? Please try to let go and return your mind to what you are experiencing right now. It’s always good to begin with your body. What sensations are you experiencing? What do you feel? Turn towards your anxiety rather than away.  Open to yourself without hesitation. Greet your experience. What exemplifies confidence better than this?"

My mind is on the moon.

Saturday's Super Moon, to be exact.

Can you feel it?

I haven't studied astrology, but I know that the movement in the sky impacts our movement here on Earth. I understand that we are a part of a living, breathing cosmos. We are all energy. We are interlaced. And I know, of course, that we couldn't live here on this planet, if not for our moon.

The night sky floods me with awe. I find few things as inspiring as gazing up at the indigo dome, the stars, the moon. It's a language I don't know how to speak, but feel deeply.

And I feel a strong sense of importance and meaning gathering around tomorrow's moon.

This is Jennifer Shelton's Full Moon in Scorpio, a Ritual for Stability and Release:

At our house, we're putting plants in the dirt. 

I've found, this past week, a rise of emotion as Tracy and I work together in our garden. It feels like a new beginning to me, like moving into a new phase of life the, the ending and beginning of a cycle. 

Before sleeping last night, we talked about how fulfilling it is to work to plant and weed and be with plants - because it's life. When you tend to the Earth, she responds. Gardening is entering into a dialogue, a relationship with her. She listens and she speaks.

The Earth Mother.

The Mother Moon.

I'm in the first of week of the Radiant Goddess ecourse. I'm eating high raw, gluten-free, dairy-free, and already I feel a huge energetic shift, a migration taking place within me. I feel my cells charged with energy and light. I feel myself emerging. A new clarity is taking hold, allowing me to express the fullness of who I am right now with ease and powerful grace. 

I'm releasing old habits that no longer serve me.

And I'm looking to the moon.

I'm diving into the deep crevices of my heart, divining what it is that is asking for release.

I'm calling up the stuff within me that is no longer a match to who I am, and I'm giving it back to the Earth, to the Universe, where it can be transformed.

Walking with spirit is an ongoing process of excavation: Rolling away stones, un-peeling layers, moving ever closer to the truth of being - the authentic self - the domain of the solar plexus, heart, throat. 

We clear ourselves so that we can speak the story we came here to tell.

What's your story?

What are you ready to let go of? 

What is asking for release?

Let the moon wash you clean.

Work With Me
As an Usui Reiki Master, I am also attuned to Imara Reiki and Etheric Cord Flush.

Whether in the studio or at a distance, Reiki, flushing cords of attachment, and energy clearing are subtle but powerful pathways to clarity. If you have any questions about how energy clearing can benefit you, I'd love to hear from you.