December; the end of the year, everything moving towards the darkest day before a new year and a new spring brings light again. How should we enter this new time?
Mind becomes Matter
We are creating with our thoughts and emotions, which can really scary since it means that we cannot hide anymore. On a large scale, the current imbalances in the world (the financial ones, for example) are bound to become manifest. On a personal level, the elements in our lives that are not authentic, not rooted in our heart’s truth, not born out of bliss, not connected to our Soul, may make themselves known more and more in a bulldozer kind of way instead of the whispers long ignored. This year, how will we face them?
Time of Celebration
This month, what exactly are we celebrating? For me, the best way to wrap this year up and consciously take the step into the next one is to celebrate with a Spirit of Gratitude.
If you are currently struggling and cannot see the results of your choices just yet…if your little company is fighting to survive, the book you’re writing hasn’t found it’s shape yet, if you took a pay cut to do something you believe in and now don’t know how to pay the bills, if you left an unhealthy relationship and now find yourself in a tiny room surrounded by boxes, wondering where your life went…congratulations. You are right on track. This is the time for Trust and Faith.
“I have to say I’m quite appreciative when someone has listened to a comment I may have made about something I like several months earlier, remembered what it was and even bought it for me as a gift. That’s pretty special! More so than the cost...” from Ross, Daily Q&A.
Listening and creativity are the key elements to great gift giving. Throughout the year I build my gift list, taking note of comments from friends and family, tearing pages from magazines, book marking products and websites, and collecting answers from our daily Q&A. Vogue magazine’s Sally Singer’s cheap and cheerful rule is to spend no more than $130.00 on each gift. My rule is what can I create and how can I buy Eco friendly, thoughtful gifts for under $50.00? I am indeed a treasure hunter, check out my great finds.
Sister: My twin has discovered gardening. The Canvas Water Bucket made from heavyweight canvas holds liquids and can be used for storage inside and outside, for carrying all kinds of things and folds for easy storage. For the gardener in your life! $12.75 Read the rest of this entry »
Dreams are a window to the soul—sometimes random, sometimes murky and hard to interpret, but other times just blindingly obvious and embarrassingly shallow. In my beautiful dream the other night, I was sitting at a desk organizing papers. I took a stack of receipts and reached up to a set of shelves to where a pile of clean white envelopes was waiting. It made me deeply happy.
Life in a Tent
You see, for two months we’ve been living in a tent. Not camping, but living: getting kids ready for school, cooking, getting clean, sweeping out spiders. Two months with all our clutter and comforts and distractions stripped away, laying bare the essentials of life and letting us see what we really need or enjoy.
Are you feeling the squeeze, or are you just afraid of it? Have you put your cash in a mattress? Lost your job? Has your neighbor? Are you worried? Pulled inward? Can’t move for fear of making the wrong move?
There is a way to turn the free fall nightmare into a flying dream.
G I V E
Listen, people, we are milk-fed on prosperity. Even the poor who grow up on food stamps and government help, wearing hand-me-downs and going to crumbling schools, in Western societies we live in abundance. There is enough for everyone.
Let’s focus on the positive. Direct from Illuminated Mind blogger, Jonathan Mead, today’s question is designed to shed light on all the good stuff you’ve got going on.
Carrie says: Living in Vancouver is so right for me. Being married is right for me. Working for me is gathering images, ideas, words, experiences and being a vessel of information to share.
Danielle says: There’s plenty in my life that is Wrong with a capital W. But it all seems divine. What’s gloriously Right is my bigger than any galaxy-size love for my child. That, and my desire to know myself through Life and know Life through myself. What’s right is writing from my roots. And, I’ve also finally found the right eyeshadow color: MAC, “Sable.”
Jonathan says: I’m living my life on purpose. Each day I do things that express my creativity and try to help others. That’s what I live for.
