Messages From Loved Ones

It's been a bit longer than usual since I posted, and that's just because I had a super busy week of readings.  I'm now firmly established in my new office at Harmony Yoga as seen here.  I need to take a picture of my office upstairs and post it here too.  Anyway, I had the opportunity this week to meet almost two dozen new clients and connect them to their loved ones on the other side.  And through all these readings, I noticed most of them had the same messages to pass on.  I'm going to share the general ones here, and I'd love for any readers to share their comments about why they think these messages came through again and again.  Okay, so here they are in order of frequency:

1) I love you
2) I'm happy here
3) Please call (fill in the blank with your relative with whom you've lost contact)
4) Don't forget your roots
5) Reconnect with your church, temple, synagogue -- place of worship (this one came up seven times this week, and it was never a nagging message but more of a, "hey, I see you're feeling a little lonely and disconnected.  Go to this community and reconnect.)
6) Thank you
7) All of this over here on the other side is real.  Trust it.

I thought of all these messages as I sat in church this morning.  It was lovely as always to see our friends in church.  I love to see my daughters sit patiently through the hour -- sometimes coloring, sometimes flipping through a book, but often listening earnestly and singing along.  The message that day was based on one of my favorite verses, Mathew 7:7.  "Ask and it will be given you.  Seek and you will find.  Knock and the door will be opened for you."  Our priest talked about asking for what we need, seeking what we need rather than what we want.  And I thought to myself, "Yeah, those lovely souls on the other side are right.  We do need connections to our community.  We do need to keep our connections with family.  We do need to keep in touch with our roots.  And we need to trust that our loved ones are happy and well and watching out for us."  It all is very real.

The Key to Happiness

So many of my readings focus on people who are unhappy -- with their jobs, spouses, family, friends, life choices.  And often what I see for them is that these situations aren't changing.  Sometimes I see positive changes coming to people, but more often than not I see them in that same situation for a bit longer than they want until a certain life lesson is learned.  But, there is a way to sustain happiness even through these moments of stagnation, regret and disappointment.

Do you want to know the secret to fulfillment and happiness?

Get the spotlight off yourself and focus it on someone else.  Service.  Giving.  It's the only way to true joy.

Every day try to do something for someone else -- try to give back in little and big ways.  Call a friend and just listen.  Don't interject your opinion, your own story, your problems.  Just listen.  Drop a box of chocolates or a plant to someone who helped you in some way.  Send an anonymous angel card to a random person in the phone book.  When you're making dinner one night this week, double the recipe and give it to a friend who's busy. Pick out a funny card at the card store and send it to your sister just because.  Go to the grocery store and buy everything that says Buy One Get One Free and donate the "free" items to your local food shelter.  When you're meditating or saying your prayers, focus on sending light and love to someone else -- not yourself.

I did a reading a few weeks ago for a woman who wanted to know when she was going to fall in love.  Her dad came through with a lot of good validations, a few funny jokes about memories they shared and lots of love.  This woman said, "Yep, that's him.  So do you see a man coming into my life before the summer ends?"  I was shocked and a bit appalled that this woman's father had gone through so much effort and energy to communicate with her and all she cared about was her new love interest.  What has happened to us that we've gotten so off track in our lives that we can't see the truly important things anymore?  Another man came to me for a reading not too long ago wanting to know when he was going to die.  He was unhappy in his marriage, his job was boring and his children didn't appreciate him, so he was ready to pack it in and move on to other realms.  Really?  Let's talk to a terminal patient and see if he'd like to change places.

Focusing only on ourselves, our happiness, our wants, is the surest way to sadness, disappointment and depression.

This life we're living isn't about us -- it's about serving our higher power by serving others.  Our only job is to see God in everyone we meet and treat them as such.  Whether or not we're happy is superfluous.

Doc's Rocks

I was in the mountains vacationing with the family this weekend and got to visit a great gem mining place that I highly recommend.  It's called Doc's Rocks and is located just passed Tweetsie Railroad in Boone.  We found large pieces of rose quartz, black tourmaline, smoky quartz, amethyst, citrine, ruby, garnet and emerald.  After we were done mining, a gentleman took us inside and taught the children about each rock -- where it's found and how it's formed.  I spoke at length with the owner, a retired Army ranger, who has an impressive personal collection of large "rocks" that he found throughout his world travels.  He had a huge piece of malachite that he discovered in Hawaii.  His wife's wedding ring was cut by him from a diamond he discovered in Africa.  Now his mission is to educate people, kids especially, on the importance of rocks and fossils.  He said, "I believe every rock serves a purpose."   I told him I couldn't agree more.

Here's the purpose of the stones we found today:

Rose Quartz: The Love Stone.  Helps people suffering from emotional trauma.
Black Tourmaline: Very protective and grounding.  Prevents the wearer from taking on other people's "stuff."
Smoky Quartz: Absorbs depression and sadness in the wearer. Helps protect soldier on active duty.  Eases stomach,liver and pancreas upsets.  Known as a good luck talisman.
Amethyst: The spiritual stone.  A must have for anyone.  This powerful and amazing stone helps one seeking a deeper and more meaningful spiritual life.  Fight addictions of any kind.  Eases stress and anxiety.  Great for meditation.
Citrine: The success stone.  Helps the wearer attract and hold onto money.
Ruby: I wrote about this stone at length in my July newsletter, but basically Ruby helps increase our passion for life. Aids initiative. Helps root chakra issues.
Garnet: Protects against sadness.  Improves self-esteem.  Fight skin disorders.  Increases physical vitality.
Emerald: Helps cure insomnia. Powerful healer.  Works on heart chakra. Strengthens memory.

Remember, it takes a crystal at least two weeks to attune its energetic vibration with yours.  Crystals work slowly at first, but they do work.

Broken Pieces

I took my three daughters to the beach today and just as the sun was setting, we took a long walk down Shell Island to look for seashells. My four year old kept handing my broken shards of shells and exclaiming, "Isn't this one beautiful?" All I saw was a piece of a broken sand dollar or a memory of a conch shell. She must have sensed my hesitance because then she started explaining what she was seeing. "This looks like an angel's wing," she said. Handing me a fragment of a sand dollar she said, "This is a mermaid's coin." A broken clam shell to Chloe became a fairy's wand. She reminded me today that it's our purpose to find beauty in everything, to honor the creation inherent in every living thing around us.

In our own life we can look at the broken pieces around us and turn them into something beautiful.

There's a wonderful book I love called Return From Tomorrow by George Ritchie. It describes his near death experience where he died and met Jesus who took him to the different levels of the afterlife. I like this book because Dr. Ritchie was a very well respected psychiatrist and actually taught Dr. Raymond Moody in medical school. When Jesus tells him it's time to go back, Dr. Ritchie says he doesn't want to leave Jesus and the feeling of incredible and total love. Jesus tells him to just "find me in all the people you meet." And that's what he does. He spends the rest of his life looking for pieces of God in the people he meets.

Today's walk at the beach reminded me that we can find the creator in other people, in a child's imagination and even in a broken sea shell.

Imagine Peace

A client I met a few months ago sent me a great poem he wrote that's written from God's point of view about all the wars going on. Here's just a sampling

"My children do not be so blind

Not just your own beliefs are right

My paths to Heaven . . .they are many

Yet still I see you’d rather fight."

It's a beautiful reminder of a simple truth -- love is the only way, peace the only path. To read the entire poem click here.