Cara Lumen

What Makes A Friend A Friend?

February 4, 2023 By Cara Lumen

What Makes A Friend A Friend?

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

I was thinking back over the friends I have had in my lifetime. I aways seemed to have at least one close friend – that person who shares your values, who for the moment is going in a similar direction to yours and someone with whom you shared equally.

Pause a minute and think back – perhaps clear to your school days and feel a smile of remembrance come to your face.

Friends care about each other. They care for each other. And the friendship is never forgotten. You come together for a moment in time for a shared interest in which you both teach and learn from each other.

A friendship develops organically. It may last only as long as a mutual interest or project. But it enriches both of you.

Friendships are never lopsided. Each person receives the gift of being and having a friend. You are each filling a specific need for the other at the same time.

I have no idea where some of my past friends are, or how their lives turned out but they were important allies and support for me at various points in time.

I have been in long-term care for three months and I continue to deepen my friendships among the staff. Part of that comes from my open friendliness and part of that comes as they get to know me and respond. There is the Med Aide who took me outside after she heard I had asked to be taken out the day before. She is the same one who helped me find and fasten fake flowers to my wheelchair. Their willingness to help me with my most mundane tasks is touching.

I’m getting to know people better as we deepen our exchanges.

I am drawn to anther Med Aide because of how well and cheerfully she does her job. Staff comes to me to talk about crystals and meditation and the dreamcatchers in my window. A few are reading my newsletter and looking over my website.

There are a lot of young people 19 and 20 who have already chosen this path of service and it is fascinating to get to know someone so aligned with their gifts so early in their life.

My close friends are all at least 30 years younger than I. I do not relate to people my age, only to the younger people who are still active in their lives.

What kind of a friend am I? I started to write that I was not physically supportive of others at 90 but I am – I am mentally supportive to a lot of people. I think I am entertaining in my uniqueness.

Cultivate your friends. I have Zoom calls with friends in Europe as well as the States. We are interesting, interested women living active lives and supporting and encouraging each other.

Is there an old friend you want to call? Is there a new friend you want to know better? And while you are at it, what kind of a friend are you?

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I develop new ways to deepen my friendships.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

Make contact with an old friend.
Take steps to cultivate a new friend.
Be a better friend to yourself.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Dismemberment And Today’s World

There is great hope in Sandra Ingerman’s February Transformational News. Just read it….

Fresh Start

Would you like to take a pause in your life and create a clean slate upon which to write the next stage of your life? What would you erase? What would you write that is new? What would you embellish? It could be a relationship, it could be a job, it could be a situation. If you could take a pause and clear out some of your emotional space what would you release?

Go within to a quiet space and picture your life without that element. Without that conflict. Without that obligation. See what your life would be like. When you have decided what you would like to change perhaps go even deeper within and ask your inner self how to make that happen. How are you planning to make that change? How do you release a situation so that you can move on? Play with various scenarios, make some decisions and do the work. Keep exploring and create a fresh start.

Affirmations

An affirmation is a positive statement made as if it has already happened. “All of life comes to me with ease and joy and glory.” “I master this information easily and effortlessly.” “I easily recognize the right direction for my next step.” All of those are affirmations that help us manifest the specifics of our life. Notice the affirmations you are giving yourself almost unconsciously and be certain they are what you want to manifest.

You might be saying things like “I can’t do that”, or “it’s too hard“ or “that will never happen.” Change those affirmations into “I find a solution easily and effortlessly.”

Notice the messages you give yourself and do some course correction today.

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

The Silence of Change

You cannot see a leaf grow. You cannot hear a bud unfold. You cannot hear the flutter of a butterfly wing. And you cannot hear your own body healing itself and manifesting change.

These are all silent worlds that manifest continuous change. Scientists have learned to look closely at microscopic levels to understand the myriad of detailed interactions that are involved in our body. They can even fix many things when they go wrong.

Change is often silent. We have to learn to do the work and watch for the subtle shifts that manifest because of what we are doing.

As I watch my body heal some of the changes are very small and some are fairly dramatic. I keep listening deeply to interpret the subtle messages and positive change it is accomplishing.

A great deal of change is silent. Learn to listen with your whole being.

===OUTER WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

The Younger Generation

I met a remarkable young woman one night who was on duty from the agency. Her name is Sophia and she is going to be a gynecological surgeon. She is 19. And she has known since she was five that was what she wanted to do. She has a full-time job at KU Medical Center but takes temp assignments when she is bored.

As I get to know these younger people, I am beginning to get a glimpse of how the world will evolve under their guidance.

As old people we have to trust the unfolding, that they are learning what is needed for the well-being of the world today and are stepping forth to make it possible. As a member of the really old generation, I realize that our way is no longer useful. We are probably outdated and out of touch. I wish the older politicians would figure that out.

Be open to experiencing younger people and their unique point of view and let it help expand how you see the world.

Do Something Differently

I’m not suggesting you eat your dessert first but I am suggesting you rearrange how you do what you do. I try to do things differently as I explore a new experience. My spiritual practice is changing because I can’t play my native flute very well anymore because of my arthritic fingers so I’m turning to my drums to expand my spiritual practice. I’ve begun to use more protective energy elements around me in the form of protective shields. And I really like the idea of being at the altar of infinite potentials, so that when we change our energy, we change our lives. I want to explore that more and feel what it creates for me. Maybe you try a new game or read a new book or explore a new podcast. Do something to change your routine and your viewpoint.

Rethink The Premise

I had asked to hang my drums on the wall until Andy from maintenance came and talked to me about it and I realized it was not a good idea. He suggested I move them into a container near my desk. It was a great idea because I realized that if they were closer, I would play them more often. Sometimes we have ideas that are not as practical as they could be and we get to rethink them.

Positioning is super important. I won’t play my drums if they are across the room on the wall but I will play them if they’re right here by my desk so I can turn and look out the window and play a few rhythms. But I hadn’t realized that.

Explore a problem from several angles before you settle on a choice. It could be from the aspect of keeping things together, from splitting them up, where you place them or from simply getting another container. Rethink how you have the things around you and see if you can make them more assessable.

Taking Stock

We must pause periodically in our life and our work to take stock, to see what has changed. To see what we have learned. To see what new choices have opened up and what we have accomplished.

Once we make that evaluation, and gain that overview, we can make new choices based on the progress we’ve made and the new opportunities that have opened up.

It’s easy to get caught up in detail and forget to pause to examine your progress. You don’t have to rethink things every day but you should rethink them frequently because as you take new steps, new insights and avenues open up to be considered.

You may find you don’t want to continue a project. You may find a new way to do it to help make it happen faster. As you move along a project, question your process and progress many times along the path. Make room for experiments and change and growth, deeper understanding and greater insights.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

I’m Really Into The Frame Drum

One of the earliest forms of drums is the frame drum. The women were denied access to drums so they used their grain sieves as drums. And that was the beginning of the frame drum. I seem to be using my frame drum several times a day. I actually put my cheek on it and feel the vibration go into my body as I drum. And then I let my body talk. I let me talk to me through the drum. It is a new language I am learning.

The frame drum I have is a 16” REMO Fiberskyn – $30 on West Music: Buy Here

There’s a new thumb drum class on The Shift Network but I took one from Christine Stevens a few years ago. Here’s the new class: Rhythms and Myths of the Sacred Frame Drum

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEARERS===

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Change With The Times

I watched my physical therapist use his thumbs to rapidly text a message and realized that I can’t do that. I’m from the days of the keyboard and I leaned to type on a big manual typewriter.

I read an article about how artificial intelligence is replacing white-collar workers and wondered what people were going to do for jobs under those circumstances. Those are not the issues of my generation but they may very well be the issues of yours.

One of the questions I have about artificial intelligence is how does morality and spirituality get built into it and by whom. My friend Thuy knows how to teach this and I’m having fascinating conversations with her about it. It’s not that I’m trying to abandon a roll of responsibility but I am not in a position to make those kinds of changes in the world. Perhaps you are. Perhaps you will. Perhaps you do.

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations

Combine Your Gifts and Talents Into A New Offering

I have had several professions in my lifetime and I’m now taking great pleasure combining them into unique offerings. I no longer teach Reiki but I use it in my daily life. I only occasionally write professionally but I use my writing all the time to explore the world in this newsletter and share what I discover. I was a licensed spiritual practitioner in the Center for Spiritual Living and that has permeated my daily philosophy of life as has my immersion in Taoism and Shamanism.

As we add new skills and awareness to our life, we adapt and incorporate them into our offerings.

I have a good friend who’s ready to retire and is changing professions. She is combining Reiki and Shamanism in the astrology sessions she offers. How will you combine your gifts and talents into a new offering?

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Support and Encouragement for our Unfolding Role in the Future

Banishing Evil From Our World

Why is it that evil is so blatantly on display in our world today? Is it to make us aware of it? Is it to make us take active steps to eliminate it?

There have been other times in history in which evil came to the forefront and was prevalent in society. The world wars come to mind but today we see evil coming out of individuals in national and local arenas. Where is this evil coming from? Why is it manifesting? What are we to do?

As with almost any change we begin with our own self. Are you thinking thoughts of anger or hatred and revenge? Why? Are you making room for different viewpoints and different cultures? Why do you think that your way is the only right way?

Make room for the myriad of spiritual approaches in the world and see us all as light workers for the highest good.

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

Do You Hold the Beat or Play the Melody?

Listen to my
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the
Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

Next Steps

Each day my body gets better and stronger as I recuperate from my hip replacement surgery. And that means that each day, I get to do a little more and ask a little more of myself. I have to do the work. A great deal of what I feel is joy and excitement over regaining my freedom of movement. I’m not sure I ask as much as I could or should but then I’ve never been one to challenge myself physically.

My body and I are a team working to regain my strength and my stamina. It heals and I give it more opportunity to strengthen. It is definitely a collaborative effort.

What kind of conversations do you have with your body? Are you aware when it sends out signals did it need something different or more? It could ask for a different diet. It could ask for more movement. Pay attention and give your body what it needs.

Because I get so engrossed in my writing and unconsciously lean forward into my computer, I am now resorting to my ladybug timer and set it for 20 minutes. When it goes off, I lean back in my chair and look out the window and take a few deep breaths and change the rhythm of my focused concentration. I could use the timer to remind me to stand up from my desk and stretch my body and move my legs and quiet my mind.

How in tune are you with your body? Do you listen to it throughout your day? Do you respond to its needs effectively? Even stopping your mental focus to turn and gaze out at nature and take some centering breaths will help change the intensity of your focus and let your body restore itself to its natural rhythm.

Your body is there for you but it is a partnership. Do your part through the choices you make.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Ode To My Body

My body has given me a long and interesting life and I am grateful.

My body has given me a long and interesting life and I am grateful. It is older now and needs more care which I thoughtfully and gratefully provide.

My body has given me a long and interesting life and I am grateful. It is older now and needs more care which I thoughtfully and gratefully provide. Keep going body, we have more meaningful life to live.

– Cara Lumen, February, 2023

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take. Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song

I help adventurers who are ready to explore the new possibilities in the emerging energy of the Divine Feminine to align their dreams and choices with what is emerging as possible today so that they go beyond their own expectations.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and suggest they
Join the Deeper Song Community

Past Issues of this newsletter are being curated on my site on a page called Insights.

Our Global Deeper Song Community

Our Deeper Song Community extends throughout the planet. Welcome new Deeper Song Explorers. I’d love to hear of your experiences – caralumen@gmail.com or let’s discuss on the Deeper Song Explorers!

Subscribe to this weekly Deeper Song Newsletter at www.deepersong.com

My Books

The Unfolding Of A New Path

January 28, 2023 By Cara Lumen

The Unfolding Of A New Path

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

When you embark upon a new path you really have no idea how it will unfold. And you certainly do not know where you will end up. So how do you prepare?

You prepare by listening and looking at the signs that unfold before you. You go within and listen and learn from what you are shown as your gifts and your mission. And you listen to your heart.

You will have many choices during the coming year. You will explore multiple roads and many trails, always assessing where you are and where you want to go. You have no idea where you will end up because you have no idea what choices you will make at any point in time. You can set an overarching goal and then keep making course corrections as you discover new options and make new choices.

In all your planning, leave room for the unexpected. The unexpected choice. The unexpected detour. The unexpected realization.

Make the coming year an adventure, full of unexpected surprises and insights. Enjoy the experience.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I am open to many options and adventures in my life.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

Look at the things you were drawn to as a young person (I was editor of my high school paper and wrote for it a lot. My writing has been a strongly expressed gift throughout my life.) Is there a thread there of some aspect that you should bring forward now?
Look at what topics interest you right now and see if there is a place of service there for you.
Can your hobby be made into a business?
Is there a group or cause you want to support?
My son-in-law Ron, a retired high school teacher, got great satisfaction in teaching a woman about fractions so she was able to measure ingredients for her cooking. He also volunteers for Boy Scout camp, an organization he’s been active in for years.
Look for the group you want to help and find a way to work with them.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Listen To Your Inner Voice

I checked with my inner voice to see if I was missing anything, if there was some role or some gift I had not fully explored. Nothing popped up but I’m keeping that door open to help me explore my opening path.

Sometimes you find your next calling easily – sort of falling into it. Other times you discover new aspects in your own unfolding process that you need to explore more deeply.

I have had many professions that I no longer pursue but the one I like the best is helping people focus their business on their website. I was this in the first Certified Book Yourself Solid Coaching class with Michael Port and I helped people focus on their offerings and next steps really well. And I like doing it a lot.

I’ve been in a position the last 13 years that if I earned money, it would mess with my Social Security. It’s a lot easier to do something for free – it creates a different joy to simply help someone because you can and you want to.

I’m going to write some articles for a magazine here and for the Evergreen website and it will be fun. I no longer have money for online classes so I will go exploring and find more free classes and more instruction online. I have podcasts to explore and audiobooks.

Look back over your skills and see what you acquired along your journey that you may reposition now. I was a Reiki Master Teacher Fourth Degree and I’m not doing that anymore except for myself. I was a Certified Bach Flower Counselor and I’m not doing that anymore. I was a Licensed Spiritual Practitioner in the Center for Spiritual Living and I’m not participating in life that way anymore either. I am an on-going student of Taoism. I have added elements of Shamanism to my spiritual path. I could take parts and pieces of all these experiences and turn them into a new role in the world. I could mix and match my skill set into another format. I could make something up from a combination of things I know. Go exploring and try unusual combinations of talents and ideas just to make them work and see what new doors open for you.

Right now, I’m staying open. I am looking over the gifts I have explored and developed in my life, and I’m listening carefully to the world around me to give me new insights about the direction to explore next. It may be a whisper or it may be a full-blown message that shows me the unfolding of my next place of service

Go exploring and let your inner voice show you the Way.

A Shield Of Unconditional Love

I have not thought to do this until I read the words “build a shield of unconditional love.” I really resonated to the idea. I put up a shield of protection every day and that transformative shield helps me dissolve my own worries as well as protects me from other influences. But I have never before thought to place myself in a shield of unconditional love.

What would that feel like? It would mean that I would feel OK about myself in all areas of my life, my physical appearance and the interaction with the depth of my degree of work in the world.

Look at how you nurture yourself. What do you need? What do you do to nurture yourself? What would you like to add?

What does a Shield of Unconditional Love feel like and how will you give it to yourself?

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Journalling For Self-Healing

Journaling is a bit like peeling an onion – with each layer you explore there is another layer under it that keeps going on and on. A major part of journaling is to peel back the layers. Write down the most obvious insights on a piece of paper and leave space between lines for additional interpretations to see what has been revealed. Keep repeating as you understand that the layers of discoveries are safe and you can go deeper beneath them.

I remember once being taught to interpret dreams by writing down the dream with spaces between the lines and then going back and writing what those lines brought up in order to go deeper in my understanding. I might try that with writing. Make my lines triple spaced and re-read them and see what shows up as a deeper perspective. How will you journal for self-healing?

My Self-Healing Progress

I continue to adjust to sleeping in the reclining chair. There are two buttons on the control which should be pretty easy. But I’m still learning. The other place I sleep is in my wheelchair. I just got off oxygen but I’m sitting at my computer quite a few hours every day this week to get out this newsletter and keep up with mail. I need to walk more and stand more and be more active. But I need permission from Physical Therapy. It’s time for me to add a movement routine to each day. I can do that.

It’s going to be more Qigong and more walking. I’m the only one responsible for how fast I get well. It’s up to me to follow the rules and ask the limits of myself and experiment with what I can and cannot do. It’s totally up to me to do the work. I have not been asking enough of myself.

When you are expanding your physical ability, ask a bit more of yourself each time and maintain that extra effort. Do the work. Expand your goals even a step or two. But most of all consistently do the work. You are the only one who can. You’re the only one who can get the results you want. Do the work.

Reset Your Energetic Boundaries

Do you pay enough attention to the flow of your energy field? Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that ask us to give more and more and more of ourselves and we do not notice or know how to call a halt to that drain.

Build in some hourly pauses. Look out the window at the clouds and close your eyes for a minute and take a number of deep breaths to center yourself. Staff workers take breaks regularly. Executives do not.

You can recenter yourself while walking down the hall by quieting your mind and focusing on your breath.

You can pause by shifting your focus to look at other elements in a room including the persona of the people in the room.

You have control of the physical energy in your life. Use it to reset your energetic boundaries.

===OUTER WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

How Consciously Do You Fulfill Your Obligations?

First of all, what do you think your obligations are? We’re talking obligations and commitment here. If you have children, you have made at least a 20-year commitment. Jobs are flexible. Relationships need nurturing and shape shifting. Careers and jobs are fluid.

What do you see as your obligations and how do you set about to fulfill them?

How Do You Show Your Appreciation?

Next time you talk to someone, look them in the eyes long enough to make a heart connection. That means you look into each other’s eyes to convey the message of gratitude.

Look for acts of thoughtfulness you can spontaneously offer another, then do them with your whole self. The energy and awareness in which we offer gratitude and acknowledge others will enrich our lives – and theirs.

Encourage Your Dreams

Are you a dreamer? Do you sit around making up scenarios about how you would like things to be? It’s a good idea to dream big when you dream. Let your imagination help you try out new scenarios to see how they feel and how they might work out. Then go exploring to see what kind of reality you can make those dreams. Let your dreams try your ideas on for size and then go make it happen.

Do Only Work You Love

I need help to get out of my chair – two people need to help me for now – more a safeguard than a necessity. But finding two people can be tricky and periodically I get someone with what I can only call an attitude.

Your attitude about your work shows in everything that you do. If you think the work is beneath you it shows. If you don’t like the work, that shows. If you love the work that definitely shows. Don’t dismiss the natural dislike of something that you have to do. But do take steps to change it.

If someone is annoying to you, try to figure out why and perhaps change your relationship with that person or simply avoid them. If you seem to be annoying to someone else, perhaps do some exploration to find out what the cause is. You don’t have to change it but at least you know what to change if you choose to change.

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEARERS===

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Evolution Is Based on Connection

We are wired to be with other people who share a common interest. We are wired for communities.

Communities come together to build things. They may have a community garden. Trading goods is how we learn about other cultures. The community is how we learn from each other through our interaction with others. Our participation in the group in general allows us to pick up ideas and new ways of doing things from one other. As interaction deepens, so does our own understanding of ourselves.

For me, learning is the most exciting aspect of interacting with others. As I share ideas and responses to my plans, it expands my horizons for what is possible for me. I like that.

Pick one thing you really like to do and go find a group that is doing it and see what they’re up to and how you might help through participation.

With me the most valuable aspect of community is like-mindedness. We are interested in the same topic. We probably each know different kinds of things about that topic. When we share what we know, we each expand our own base of knowledge.

I find myself in a community of healers. I’m not sure what my role is yet. One of the things I do is spread a sense of joy and humor as people come and go within my room. My role will not be as a fellow healer in the sense of being in service. It will be more in the philosophical broadening of awareness and insights I can bring to any conversation.

Being in a group offers mental stimulation and deeper emotional connections with people who are mindfully supportive of each other. This newsletter gives me a strong feeling of touching lives all over the world. I have a small group of friends from various parts of the world with whom I meet regularly on Zoom and I have individual calls with many of them. My friendships are all over the world. You don’t have to be in close proximity to find like-minded friends that you need and want. Go exploring and have a great adventure!

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations

Clear Your Internal Clutter

My sister worried a lot in her lifetime. She probably still does but she’s got Alzheimer’s and maybe there’s no more worry for her. She worried if she could do it right. She worried if someone would like it. She worried a lot.

We need to learn to do the best we can and let that be OK. Let the chips fall where they may. Learn from the results – the success and failure and response.

One of the ways to learn is to trust. Trust that you have the right insight. Trust you will take the right steps. Know that the right steps for this moment in time are there and just make your choices, see what unfolds and gain your insights. Life is one big experiment – one big leaning platform.

A really powerful way to live is to find a peaceful place within yourself and reside there. Sometimes it’s a matter of trust. Sometimes it’s a matter of experimentation, sometimes it’s a matter of taking a step to see what happens and learn the lesson it offered for the next time.

Trust the learning process and keep an eye out for emotional clutter that is blocking your path and take steps to clear it away.

A Change In Habit

First of all, I’m not very good with money. And I get very excited about taking classes. The long-term care arrangement here is to take all of my Social Security except $62 a month and provide food and shelter and medical care. And you can’t do too much on $62 a month. I have my website to support and that’s important to me. A new drumming class has shown up that interests me but remember I’m a sucker for classes.

So I began to look online for the teacher and other things that she offers as free introductory sessions and I will have to get better at learning through introductory classes.

I have to admit I’m a sucker for learning and an easy mark for a class. And I get to get over that. I have other options like e-books and audiobooks and podcasts and group meetings in which I learn. I just need to identify the ones that call to me. Learning I will always do – now to learn how to keep on learning for free.

=== ===THE UNFOLDING DIVINE FEMININE=== ===

Explore and Interpret the Guidance and Messages of the Divine Feminine

An Old Warrior

One of the spirit guides that I discovered when living in New York City was an Amazon Warrior named Alexandra. She was my fighting side. I didn’t call on her very much because I was mostly having a really good time so I was really surprised when she showed up recently 50 years later. She is older and wiser and stronger. We’ll see what we accomplish together and why she is showing up again after all of these years.

How are your spirit guides evolving? What are they teaching you?

When you journey to your Secret Garden, your guides are there waiting for you and only you can interpret the messages they bring. So go within and ask your spirit guides to show up. Ask which ones you are to work with now. And ask whoever shows up what you are to do.

I have a feeling my Amazon Warrior Alexandra is here for the world, the well-being of the whole. I will pay close attention to her guidance. I feel strong energy bubbling up.

An old worrier is a wise warrior. It will be interesting to work with her.

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

The Magical Power of an Affirmation

Listen to my
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the
Deeper Song Website

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

===REFLECTIONS===

I am having a blast with this PAVILIA Deluxe Fleece Blanket with Sleeves. It is a blanket with sleeves and a front pocket. It is great for sleeping in recliner chairs while being totally covered up including your hands by the long sleeves which makes them accessible.

===CARA’S CORNER===

Accepting Help

I’ve been an independent woman all my life and it is very hard for me to need help right now. I have some restrictions on my movements until I get stronger. I am learning to sleep in a recliner rather than the bed because of my hip replacement. It lets me sleep on my back. I need to get back to better than normal walking. But first I have to have permission to do the work. I can now stand up straighter than I have for years. My right leg is a good 3 inches longer than my left which makes walking a bit odd and I will get fitted with a shoe with a lift. I need to cultivate better posture through mindfulness and practice.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Accept The Changes

My body has changed. It is a good change, a change for the better.

My body has changed. It is a good change, a change for the better. It will open new portals and opportunities and ways of being.

My body has changed. It is a good change, a change for the better. It will open new portals and opportunities and ways of being. I have turned a corner and begin my new journey.

– Cara Lumen, January 2023

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take. Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and suggest they
Join the Deeper Song Community

Past Issues of this newsletter are being curated on my site on a page called Insights.

Our Global Deeper Song Community

Subscribe to this weekly Deeper Song Newsletter at www.deepersong.com

My Books

Expand Your Vision

January 21, 2023 By Cara Lumen

Expand Your Vision

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

If we create our world by using our imagination, we have some serious work to do. I’m not exactly sure where to start.

Before I can envision for the planet, I have to vision from my own small world, my own sphere of influence, my own actions and choices. Begin with yourself and your expression in life to make the changes you hope to see reflected in the world.

I have a great start on the kind of people I want to be with because of the kind and caring staff here at Evergreen long-term care. I can actually use them as a place to begin my vision for this New World. I envision a world full of kind, caring, smart, people who are very deeply in service to others. So much will change in the world if all of us are in service to each other.

I envision our planet as a place where all of the products we use are very environmentally friendly and nothing, absolutely nothing gets dumped on Mother Earth to hurt or harm or destroy her. That means that a lot of human hearts and minds have to change.

So I have envisioned caring people caring for our the planet. What about me? What about my vision for myself?

First of all, I’m 90 so I can vision for 10 or so years ahead but I won’t put a time frame on it. How do I need to change? How might I be a service? What do I need to do to make all that happen?

How do I need to change? I watch meaningful and impactful interactions with kind, caring people in service here and I seek to copy them even in the few months I have been here. And I know that following their example is going to make a huge difference as I move forward. So choosing to be around the right people is a primary place to start defining your place of service -real life, aware, thoughtful, kind people. Are they living successful lives with some degree of calm certainty? How are they doing that? Are the activities you choose to do nurturing you and expanding your awareness and supporting your work in the world? That’s a lot to get from a day’s worth of living.

How might I be a service? You can go deeper into your place of service at any age. Look around at how you are helping people right now. It may be that your support of others is simply through positive thinking and ever-deepening contribution to others.

What do I need to do to make all that happen?

If I spend contemplative time visualizing peace everywhere on the planet, I can work with communities of people or herds of animals or individuals.

I get to imagine what clear, sparkly water looks like and feels like and that it is everywhere. I get to envision forests growing safely without the destruction of a fire. I’ve been a vegetarian for 50 years so I’m not a part of that process of killing animals for food.

I will envision my life as projecting positive, inclusive energy full of health and balance.

Each of us has a place of expression. My physical plane seeks some answers through self-healing. I have my eyesight to work on and not worry about.

Where do you need to change? What do you need to change?

Be creative in how you expand your vision and make it become a reality.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

Expand your vision of what you see for yourself. and raise your expectation of what is possible.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

How do you envision the survival of the planet? Become more aware of what is happening and create your own very strong spiritual practice focused at least in part on the survival of our planet.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Add More Elements To You Spiritual Practice

I am drumming more in my spiritual practice since my flute playing is less than stellar with my arthritic fingers. I use several of my rattles to bless my work and send energy to heal my body. I make up songs to heal my eyes.

I like to do my spiritual practice as the sun rises and sets. I have a ceremony before I sleep to focus on releasing and restoration. I could do better about offering gratitude for my meals. I will make up a song of focus for my computer and the ideas it helps me express.

I haven’t done this yet but I will start thanking my two plants for their wholing energy when I water them.

How will you expand your spiritual practice?

Water Meditation

I live in the middle of the country in Kansas and have no real way to do a water meditation in person so I will have to find a recording that speaks to that particular form. Sit quietly and listen to the innate rhythm and flow of the tides as the water and the waves help us find a soft, ongoing, nurturing sound. Find a water sound that you like and begin to meditate with it and see what journeys it takes you on.

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Do The Work

As I come to the end of my eighth Qigong class, I realize that I am not doing the work. Part of it is that I can’t stand up very well – yet. But the other part is that I am not doing the work. I’m not practicing.

Where are you falling behind simply because you are not practicing or have not added it to your daily routine? Rearrange your day until you find the right sequence.

Your Body’s Response to Fear

I’m experiencing a shortness of breath and my PT facilitator Maggie said she noticed it when my hip replacement surgery was scheduled. Hummm. I have never felt less in control of my own destiny as I do now when I have to depend on so many others to get me ready and get me to the hospital and back again. I have been an independent woman the majority of my life and I don’t like how it feels to have that not be within my capacity anymore. I need to make some creative adjustments both in the form of self-empowerment and beliefs. I’m not sure where to begin but recognizing the need is a good place to begin my exploration.

Self-Care

I am so well cared for here at Evergreen, things I can no longer do for myself are done for me but I have to make certain I do my part – exercise that only I can provide for my body, the food choices that only I can make, the rest that only I can give – these are still totally my responsibility. Don’t give up your role in caring for the well-being of your body. It is your temple for you to live in. Care for it wisely.

===OUTER WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

Try New Things

What do you want to do in the coming year that you’ve never done before? It may range from trying a new food to going rock climbing. It’s good to experiment. It’s good to try new things.

I’ve recently begun to read Joe Dispenza’s book Becoming Supernatural and it is going to change my life. It is taking me in a direction I never dreamed possible. I’ve had the book for one year but now is when I need it.

I have a role to play here at Evergreen and that is unfolding. I am eager to participate more.

What new things do you want to explore? What new paths will you go down? Keep trying new things, it makes life an adventure.

Explore Other Cultures

There is a fairly diverse population among the staff here at Evergreen. Two people have come over from Africa in their teens one of them worked her way through college as a long-distance runner. I have been exposed to more diversity in population and cultures in the last three months since I have been here than I have in my entire 90-year life. I’m loving it.

Where do you go to expose yourself to diversity? As a young girl I remember having dinner at a neighbor of my grandparents and we ate squirrel. Only in later years did I realize that was what they could afford to eat.

In New York City I had a Jewish friend invite several of us for Passover where she explained the ceremony. But other than eating at restaurants that serve culturally specific food I have not done much exploring and have had no chance to get to know people from other cultures. How will you broaden your world view today?

What Do You Miss Doing?

I used to walk all over New York City, now I use a walker. I used to garden, now I have two philodendron I need help watering. Music has always been in my life. With my arthritic fingers making my native flute playing a bit odd, I have turned to my drums and my voice to add music to my spiritual practice. But I keep the elements I love in my life in some form.

We let slide all manner of favorite nurturing things in order to make our living or raise our children or…

Get that old band instrument out of the closet and play it again. Find time to do things that you used to love to do. Whatever you miss doing, find time to do it again now.

One of the big lessons I learned about moving into a smaller place is to start with an empty space the size of the space you are moving to and put in it only what you really want to keep around you. The rest you leave behind. Sometimes that is hard to do but necessary.

We can apply that principle to the agenda you choose for yourself for the coming year. If you were to begin again with a clean slate, what top three things would you put on it?

I would put exploring and writing about what I learn in order to clarify it for myself and others. Oddly my spirit practice is third on my list but when I was downsizing, it was my spiritual items that I had to cut down on the most.

I realize that there are two vital elements to my life – my spiritual practice and my writing which are deeply entwined with leaning. That’s good to know.

Make a list of what is important for you and prioritize them. Are you doing what you really want to do? How do you need to change to make room for your priorities? Start with a clean slate not a full slate and consciously write what you want in your life.

Love Your Work

Life is too short to not do work you love. We spend a huge portion of our time at work. We deserve to have it be something we love to do.

It is very important that you really like your job because that energy shows through in the smallest thing you do.

Do you need a new job? Look around for what that might be. Are you even in the right field?

Ask for an information interview from some in a field you are interested in. I did that in New York City – asked for an introduction to film distribution. The sole proprietor had a great time telling me about the work he loved and I learned that it was not a field for me. Network to find what interests you and what skills and talents are required to be successful at it.

Don’t settle, keep doing only work you love.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

Create a Nightly Ritual

There are several steps to creating a night ritual. One is to offer gratitude for what has unfolded during the day. When you reflect back over the events that unfolded, you can see the gifts and the lessons and the insights it brought. Contemplate the new possibilities they suggest.

I always set up protection for the night. Mine is in the form of a song and I also experience myself being tucked into a transformative sphere which not only protects but transforms any negative energy I might emit or encounter during the night.

And of course I clear that sphere once I’m awake in the morning and set it up as protection for the new day.

I do refresh the protective sphere in my room each morning because there is a lot of traffic in an out during the day.

I am now up early enough to watch the sun rise and play my drum and sing greeting songs to the directions and offer my services. How will you expand the rituals you use for opening and closing your day?

I Got My Drums Back!

I had given away a drum that I made 40 years ago two times – It just came back to me which is perfect. I didn’t know I get back my big blue djembe drum which is a pretty funny thing to own in a nursing home. They have already suggested drumming circles but I’ve never even been to one. Since my arthritic fingers are making my flute playing less than delightful, I can certainly improve my drum playing. The drum that I like the best is the frame drum. It has no ties in back. A long time ago women were not allowed to have drums so they use their grain sieves as drums which is why it’s different than other ones. You use your thumb to hold the frame. I can play it softly and look out the window at the world. I have six drums in a collection as a resident of a long-term care facility. But the world wanted me to have a way to celebrate life and I have it.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.

Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.

Because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

— Rumi

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEARERS===

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Build Your Leadership Skills

As I watch the mess the US Republicans are making, I once again see a self-focused group who are only interested in power.

I understand when people are self-focused because of survival but I do not understand the need for power. It is an ego driven need and if I were guessing I’d say part of it was a need to bolster their ego because of feelings of insecurity. And I guess I also have to leave room for it to be part of a “mean streak.”

Examine your willingness to compromise. If you are in a leadership position – in work or in your family – do you listen to those you lead? Do you encourage them to contribute? Do you help expand the ideas they bring to the table? Do you take time to explain the strengths and weaknesses so everyone in the group can learn?

Strong leaders help build other strong leaders by encouragement and mentoring. How are your leadership skills?

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations

Expand Your View Of World Community

I have not been around this diverse a population since I walked the streets of New York City and even there, nationalities had a tendency to congregate in their own neighborhoods. But here at Evergreen I have met several people who came from Africa in their teens and a nurse/executive who says she is the only Asian, named Nancy. One Med Aid plays the viola. Another put herself through college doing cross-country running. Our chef started out in finance and after ten day was told to go find another field. His brother owned a restaurant so he found his calling.

There are so many stories from so many cultural backgrounds. I have expanded my view and experience of our world community.

What happens when we do that? We begin to see the lives of others from a more inclusive viewpoint. We learn of the richness of many cultural heritages and we experience ourselves as members of the planet rather than of a specific country or race or religion. And once we raise our gaze and become focused on the survival of our planet home, we unite in caring for it.

What changes for you when you experience yourself as a citizen of the planet? How does your responsibility change? Get to work on that.

=== DEEPER SONG PHILOSOPHIES ===

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.
– Mother Teresa

Pay attention to the ripples you send out. Fill them with compassion and love.

===A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Spiritual Practice

The Two Vital Sides of Your Spiritual Practice

Listen to my
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the
Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

I Had Surgery Last Week

I’m not going to write a blow by blow but I am sitting here at my computer at 4AM having just taken my third anti-bacterial soap shower and I am dressed and ready to go in an hour for my hip replacement. It is 5 AM and I am the first surgery patient.

I have sent energy ahead as have a few of my reiki friends, to the space, to the doctor and staff who help him and for my body’s response to this adjustment as well. And I get to trust. An aide will come get me in an hour. She will be given a packet of information by the nurse to convey to the hospital staff. A van will come pick me up and load me and my wheelchair “Pearl” into the back. It is 33 degrees so I had a warm poncho I got in Mexico years ago and lap robe. I will spend overnight in the hospital tonight.

I have to trust a lot of people to do their jobs really well. And they will.

Later: I stayed in the hospital six days. My big discovery was that I’m going to sleep in a recliner from here on. They had one waiting for me at Evergreen. So I am tucked in, sitting in my wheelchair at my desk back at my computer again. The hip surgery went fine – it was just other things like my oxygen levels that kept me in the hospital for a while. And I can stand up straighter than I ever have. All is well in my world. Cara

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

The Year Ahead

There is fog on the road ahead. I do not know what it will reveal.

There is fog on the road ahead. I do not know what it will reveal. There may be a choice to make and what I choose will determine my destination. There may be a detour I take to go exploring. But I will keep going.

The is fog on the road ahead. I do not know what it will reveal. There may be a choice to make and what I choose will determine my destination. There may be a detour I take to go exploring. But I will keep going. I am an explorer and I am an adventurer. Bring it on!

Cara Lumen, December, 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take. Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

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Our Future Collective Vision

January 1, 2023 By Cara Lumen

Our Future Collective Vision

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

Those of us who are aware of our ability to create a collective vision must do the work. We must plant the seeds for the New Year opening before us.

Let’s begin with what we want for the collective whole.

Inclusiveness

I started to write peace and changed that to inclusiveness because if we experience inclusiveness, it will in fact bring peace to the entire world. Simply viewing all people as equal, which we are, helps us see ourselves in the lives and hearts of others wherever they are on the planet. The most important thing we can do is to eliminate any feeling of separateness and to cultivate an awareness of vast inclusiveness. Not only will that make us feel less alone, it will help us experience empathy for everyone else on the planet. Inclusiveness is an outstanding place to begin to change our future.

Self-Responsibility

We are responsible for everything that we experience. We create with our thoughts. And its limitations come from what we believe we deserve and what we believe is possible. When we change our thinking, we change our entire life. Do the work.

Monitor your thoughts. Monitor your beliefs. And guide them in the direction of your choosing. You can create your own life by managing your beliefs and thoughts and intentions.

Collective Power

We must use our collective power to change the world for the better. That means seeing the good in all. That means always choosing for the highest good. And it means believing in a future of collective oneness – a oneness of serenity, inner peace, and the well-being of everything on the planet.

That seems like a difficult vision to hold but we must do the work. Use your imagination to see a healed planet in place, to see people living in cooperation and collective support. Picture your role and how you can expand it and increase your place of service.

Our future begins with each of us right here and now and the choices we make, and the actions we take.

Choose a particular place of service for the coming year. It may be one you have been working on or it may be a new one. Make some plans on how you want to participate in the coming year.

Add an element to your spiritual practice that sends a blessing to the planet. I have a bell I ring. If you want it to be focused on something specific like the environment do that. If you want to be in a group of people do that. Send positive, loving, supportive, healing energy to the planet every single day.

We are interconnected. Each strand in this web of life carries our thoughts and actions and affects the whole. Our future responds to the here now – with what we think and say and do. Let’s create a powerful new inclusive future with our thoughts, our deeds, and our imagination.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I take responsibility for helping to heal our planet through my thoughts, words, and deeds.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

Pick an area of concern that you have for our planet, or our circumstances and begin to focus your energy and support on that.
Choose one or two areas you want to actively contribute to in the coming year and do that.
Do the work!

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Inner Work For The Future

There are so many opportunities to contribute to the future that I hardly know where to begin.

What is affecting us now has to do with the rising Divine Feminine and how her increasing power is affecting the Divine Masculine. It is a power struggle. The Divine Feminine is persistently and gradually assuming the power the Divine Masculine once held.

I wonder what kind of world we will create. I know the feminine qualities of inclusiveness and caring and compassion will be part of it. Our leadership form is more nurturing, more supportive, more encouraging and more inclusive. Guiding our governing towards the highest good for all will certainly play havoc with special interest groups. I think saving the planet will be at the top of the list because we must have a place to live. I’m sure giant efforts will be made to stop emissions and create space for the planet to heal.

How do you envision our future and what role will you take?

What Do You Keep Putting Off and Why?

Is there something you should be doing but you’re not doing because you keep putting it off? Do you know why you keep putting it off?

It could be that what you want to do is hard or challenging. It could be that it’s not really what you’re supposed to do. It could be someplace in between. But when you are stuck trying to figure out why you were stuck, you have an opportunity to work past it or through it or around it. Check for beliefs that are no longer yours. Or beliefs that lead to ideas and concepts that may no longer be true. Examine and organize and gradually eliminate experiences that keep you from a shift in awareness and perception.

It could be you are not aware of the possibilities and potential of a particular choice. I certainly had no idea of the opportunities I would have with this move to long-term care – physical therapy being one of them. It’s hard to imagine a new “next” if you have no idea what is possible. So exploration and self education is one way to explore new possibilities.

What is calling in your life? What do you want to replace in your life that is not working? Stop putting that off.

Know Your Value

I am gaining a whole new view of myself and my place of service and my value. It is totally wrapped in moving out of isolation. We need to experience responses to our words and our actions to know our value. We need to see change or results in order to experience our impact.

What proof do you have of your value? What signs of the actions you are taking are showing up?

As I move into my new life, I am watching how I feel, how people are responding to me and if possible, how my life changes. I will stay aware of new opportunities, new friends and new results that stem from my actions and choices.

When you change, the world around you changes. Be aware of what you are creating by your beliefs and actions.

The Dream We Hold

There is so much not working in the world that I don’t know where to begin my dream. I actually happen to be one of the light workers. Those of us who are holding High Watch for the world continue to raise our sites and our actions in order to heal and whole our planet.

We have to look beyond what is showing up in our world to see what is possible. In order to do that we really have to trust the power of the universe to guide us.

We have to trust that certain things are happening in order for those of us who are observing the power of the changing universe, can get the message about the steps we are to take next. And how we are to take them.

We Have Access To Enterprising, Industrious Energy

The Universe is ready to support us but there is an unfolding progress and we have to do our part.

Nature shows us a pattern of rest and rapid growth. That is the pattern we are to follow – stillness, expanding inner awareness and growth.

We have to do our part. We have to do the work.

What kind of work do we do to prepare for growth?

In nature gardeners help plants grow by cleaning away other plants that are crowding them.

As a person, are you overworked with non-nourishing companions? Are you someone who does not believe in yourself, have a weak spiritual practice, and do not take care of your body? All of those need correcting.

Nature works in cycles of unfolding and we must learn to be both aware and patient. What are the signals, the nudges we are getting and are we paying attention to them?

Be aware of the cycles of the universe regarding rest and action and allow space for the power of life to unfold.

Take Time To Reflect

How are you doing? Are you going in the direction you want? Are you accomplishing what you intended? What new doors are opening for you?

Choose a time for monthly reflection. You might pick the time of a New Moon as the beginning of a new cycle. Perhaps set new goals, or change directions, or make a simple course correction. You might find a time at the end of each day to look back over your day and the small gifts and nudges you received and offer gratitude. When will you

take time to reflect?

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Calming Breath

Your breath is an instant doorway to calming yourself down and refocusing with clarity. When you find yourself in a stressful situation take a deep breath and then another. And another – until you feel centered.

When you find yourself unable to make a decision pause and begin to breathe slowly and deeply until you feel centered again and can make a clear decision.

The breath is a simple and powerful tool that you can use anytime anywhere in any circumstance. Begin to use your breath for centering and moving forward.

===OUTER WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

Do Something Thoughtful For Another Today

As an old person on a walker, the idea of doing something thoughtful for someone today is an interesting opportunity. It can be as simple as a compliment or a suggestion that helps to solve a problem or simply engaging in a warm smile and exchange. I have had interesting conversations around the Qigong book “Head-To- Toe Healing” by Master Chunyi Lin as I share an acupressure point treatment for a lot of physical problems. I have had a conversation with a 17-year-old nurse’s assistant about her future career and as I engage more deeply into conversation, my circle of friends is growing.

Doing something thoughtful for another person takes many forms. It could be that you open the door professionally for someone. It could be as simple as encouragement or a compliment to let someone know they are doing a good job. Become aware of how what you do and say impacts others and perform a thoughtful act of kindness for someone today.

When Was The Last Time You Laughed Out Loud?

I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud. That’s a pretty sad state of affairs. I do know that my entire experience of positive exchange with others has increased tremendously since I moved as in going from 0 to 100 by simply moving across the street. My heart has opened and my spirits have lifted. How about you? What is currently lifting your spirits?

Begin by noticing the things that make you smile inside. What warms your heart? Where can you find more situations like that? Put on your happy face and go exploring.

How Is Your Relationship with Your Parents?

My mother was my Girl Scout Leader and she passed me on my horsemanship badge. I had read Margaret Campbell Self’s Encyclopedia of Horses three times. I knew my stuff. The gift she gave me was to listen and let me share with her my love of horses and all I knew. She listened and gave me room to share.

She saw to it that I got one year at Hollins in Virginia where I got to meet other smart girls from all over the country. My father was a shy man and a steady conscientious provider.

What memories do you have of your parents loving you and helping you grow up?

Parents are people who have a calling of their own to answer. I answered my own calling when my girls were raised and my two boys were in high school by having them go live with their remarried father after I had raised them alone for three years. I went to New York City and began my calling as a holistic healer. Thee years after I got to New York I stepped in to raise my granddaughter. I was in my 50s living alone in New York City. Give some thought to your parents as people living their lives rather than just as your parents. Like you, they had their own calling and relationships and mere humanness to manage and they did the best they could.

If you are still angry with a parent, try to heal that wound by having a conversation and try to see what was going on in their lives at that time.

What is your relationship with your parents and have you thanked them recently for choosing to bring you into the world?

Alone Time

What is the quality of your alone time? Do you collapse with fatigue or move into nurturing meditation? Do you spend time worrying or simply living your best life?

Notice the choice you make and move toward nurturing, healing, alone time.

Lay Down Your Burdens

When life gets too tough, pause and go within to that place of serene security and inner wisdom and turn your problems over to the Universe.

Trust what you find there. Trust the reassurance. Trust the wisdom. Trust the answers.

In shaman journeying we use our imagination to go to our Sacred Garden. In every object and image there is a message meant only for you to interpret. Ask for help. Ask for guidance and interpret whatever images show up. I have three or four guides that show up regularly. Here are two of my podcasts

Foundation For The Journey Within – Create Your Sacred Garden and Unleash the power of your Sacred Garden

If your burden seems heavy, ask for help in carrying it.

One of my favorite recorded journeys is The Backpack Journey in which you truly are asked to lay down your burdens.

Go within and ask for guidance and trust the answers that you are given.

You are not alone in your journey. Your inner wisdom is there to guide you. Ask for help to lay down your burden and be aware of how much assistance shows up – and in what form.

What am I curious about?

What Do You Want To Learn This Coming Year?

I love to learn but I am full up with Qigong and flute classes and drum classes and I have no idea what new paths of learning will come to me this coming year.

I look at learning as a form of exploring. I love attending the free summits that are offered by The Shift Network and others. I learned about Shamanism that way and more about Qigong that way. Also that is how I found my teachers.

But I honestly don’t know what I want to learn in 2023. It may be more in the form of what I learned from interaction with the loving staff here than any class. I know that relationships are going to expand my awareness of the depth of the capacity in others.

When something resonates go explore it. Find out enough about it to know if it’s something you want to do. Be prepared for surprises. Something may show up that never crossed your mind before. Then go do it. Learn it. Take a class or two. And see what resonates with you.

Notice what classes your friends are taking, what they are studying, where are they are learning it and do some exploring and see if something calls to you. I’m not through learning by a long shot but I just don’t know what I want to learn next. It will show up and I will recognize it. And maybe my next lesson is not in the form of a class but in the form of an ongoing interaction with another person. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for that one.

What do you want to learn in the coming year? Do that.

Reorganize For The New Year

I had a hard time finding things on my desktop because I was putting them by year not by category. And then I never knew what year something happened and so I can never find it. My awareness of this less-than-stellar filing system started when I was looking for some poems I had written but they were kind of all over the place. The end of the year is a really good time to rethink the organization of your life including your desktop. My suggestion is to keep things by category and leave the dates out of it in case that’s your tendency to do. I have a group of poems I identify by where I was when I wrote them – like New York City. I do have the newsletters in one folder. I do have all the emails to my friends in one folder but each friend has his/her own document. I do have my journeys and journaling in one folder. See how this works. Perhaps you take time to go over your organizational systems in whatever part seems to be the most frustrating to you and keep the reorganization simple.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

Center and Adjust

My spiritual practice has changed recently for two reasons – my arthritic fingers and the fact that I have a suite-mate. My fingers now bend to the side so when closing a flute hole, my finger doesn’t cover it completely so it is not in tune. If I were playing better, I would not mind the open door to the hall. I still drum and sing but softly because of the other person in the room, and it is my intimate spiritual practice. I have a very quiet and private spiritual practice now that I am not living alone.

I do meditate each morning and could do it longer but it gets pretty busy rather fast around here. And I want to get better at my Qigong practice.

What kind of changes do you want to make to your meditation practice in the coming year?

===DEEPER SONG DISCOVERIES===

Insights and Resources to Explore

Listening

“Anyone can listen. All you have to do is stop talking. But to be a good listener, you have to stop talking and be interested.

Genuine curiosity is the precursor to understanding, and a good listener helps the other person feel understood.”

James Clear

===GUIDANCE FROM OUR COSMIC COUNSELORS ===

Listen Beyond the Voice Within

My Journey to The Cosmic Counselors: Please give us guidance for the New Year.

I go to my Sacred Garden and to the meadow which is surrounded by large trees. Wee folk dance and sing and are joined by a lot of squirrels who seem to be my frequent guides.

The message I got is of one great industry and anticipation and moving forward to get a great deal done. I see a beautiful golden path laid out before me. I know it is the work I am already going to do here at Evergreen. In the center of the large green is a rock altar around which are the Cosmic Counselors and a majority of my guides holding hands and singing a song to the well-being of the planet. Get the job done. I turn and the path opens before me. It is beckoning me to my particular role in the unfolding of the coming year. I skip along the path. 90-year-old me on my walker skips down the path. I am joyously exploring new possibilities and a rich and deep and wide path is opening before me. I have a great deal to learn, and a great deal to share. I am a translator and explorer and an adventurer. There are shape-shifting clouds in the sky and I see several interesting scenarios play out that are part of our potential upcoming year. The message is for us to stay open and be inquisitive.

End of journey.

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations

Passive Income

Passive income is money that comes in when you are doing something else like sleeping. It is a product on your web site that appeals to your target audience that you charge for. I don’t have one on my web site because income will mess with my social security. But give some thought to what you might offer. People sell recordings of a course they gave. It might be a series of podcasts with a specific result that you sell. It could be your artwork applied to a bag or sweatshirt. Become aware of the many forms of passive income and see how you can create some of your own.

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Support and Encouragement for our Unfolding Role in the Future

Goodbye 2022

Has it been a good year? What did you learn? How did you change? What new pathways opened for you? How did your place of service change? What skills did you acquire? Or sharpen?

I feel like I was blasted out of a cannon of isolation and increasing depression. Those insidiously creep up on you and are hard to recognize because of their stealth.

My new path has begun to unfold in the last two months of this year and it has propelled me into a whole new future. Sometimes change happens slowly and sometimes it just shows up and bops you on the head.

I have no idea how to learn to recognize diminished capacity because it is often slow and subtle and insidious. Sometimes it’s only one change that is a trigger that lets you know how stuck you really were.

In my new environment, I watch new ideas appear, new opportunities to serve unfold and new friends with whom to deepen my relationship.

How did you change this past year? What did you release this past year? What did you learn this past year? What new paths are you considering?

Be aware of your many choices as the new year unfolds before you.

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

Does Your Path Have a Heart?

Listen to my
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the
Deeper Song Website

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

What Are Your New Year Visions?

What do you envision for 2023? Not a resolution but a vision. What do you want to create? What do you want to experience?

I want a positive outcome for the two hip replacements I will have this year. I want to expand my contribution to the Evergreen Community and deepen my friendships. And I’d like to be surprised.

What are your hopes had dreams for the coming year?

===CARA’S CORNER===

Expectations

We should periodically do a reality check on what we believe we deserve and what we believe is possible. This week I asked my physical therapist if I would ever get off the walker even with hip surgery and she said I shouldn’t count on that. I didn’t know that. But now I can make my plans around that. It means I must learn to walk further and stand up straighter. And walk the halls to practice.

That knowledge helps me keep a realistic expectation of what hip replacement surgery will make possible. And I can always be the exception.

What kind of goals do you set for yourself? What do expect can happen?

Walking the halls is an interesting goal. There’s a fish tank in one hall, a turtle in the community room and a bird down my hall. Not exactly exciting goals but they are measurable.

I want to establish and anchor my Qigong practice in my life. I could meditate more, I am getting braver about playing my flute when I know it can be heard down the hall. I still sing my morning chants but softly because I have a suite-mate. I have begun to play new rhythms on my big drum in my meditation and that is inviting new songs

Make room for yourself. Make room to expand. Make room to grow.

Make room to explore.

Raise your expectations for the coming year.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Expectations

I want to expect enough of myself but not too much that I can’t achieve it.

I want to expect enough of myself but not too much that I can’t achieve it. I want to challenge myself to try harder and reach higher and achieve more.

I want to expect enough of myself but not too much that I can’t achieve it. I want to challenge myself to try harder and reach higher and achieve more. I raise my sights and move into a new year.

– Cara Lumen, December, 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take. Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and suggest they
Join the Deeper Song Community

Past Issues of this newsletter are being curated on my site on a page called Insights.

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How Has Your Path Widened With Opportunity?

December 24, 2022 By Cara Lumen

How Has Your Path Widened With Opportunity?

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

You know the saying “When one door shuts another one opens.” So how has your path widened with opportunity lately and have you even noticed?

Slowly and gradually give yourself more space to move in and you may also discover all sorts of interesting off shoots that invite you to go exploring. You always have a choice. But first you have to notice what changes have presented themselves and what you want to do about them.

I’m a writer and I have dry macular degeneration which means I am gradually losing my eyesight. There is no known cure. I’m working on it metaphysically but I also know I have to work on my own belief system of what is possible and what I deserve.

There is a reason that I have been given this opportunity (I’m not going to call it a challenge) because I have some serious work to do and my calling is to share what I learn with you. And I have begun to find ways to adjust to this new opportunity.

When we hit a bump in the road one of the first things we ask is “why me?” And if you think about it you will ask “What is my lesson here?”

If I were to make a guess about my own situation it would be that this is a really strong challenge that I must move through and share my process with you in order to encourage you, perhaps give you ideas for your own solutions, and maybe even alleviate some fear as I hopefully and successfully move through this process.

So my first largest lesson is to trust that I have the strength to work through it. I know I do. I’m a very creative person and I will find creative new ways to work around or with this “opportunity” as I choose to call it.

Because so many people have written me in response to my series of shares on downsizing and moving into long-term care facilities, I know that sharing this process around my eyes will offer some solutions and encouragement to others.

What new opportunities presented themselves to you in the form of what could be viewed as a challenge? And how do you plan to move through it? How has your path widened with opportunity? Where is it leading you?

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I look closely at the doors that open and the opportunities that unfold before me. I go exploring.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

Sit down and make a list of the opportunities that have presented themselves in the past year.
Choose one or two that really resonate and go exploring.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Follow The Nudges

I was never much of a dreamer. My opportunities seemed to open up spontaneously as I enthusiastically and perhaps impulsively took a lot of different classes in New York City.That impulsive, in-the- moment pattern has continued most of my life with seemingly impulsive but on-target choices.

I’m not as much of a dreamer as I am an impulsive responder. And I think I’m an easy mark because I love to learn.

So I’ve really never had a grand plan or an unfulfilled dream. I resonate strongly in the moment of choice and follow my inner calling. I guess that makes me more of an adventurer than a planner.

I never had a dream. And I’ve been handed a great many positive things in my life. College was simply an expectation. For that matter, so was getting married and having children. But then I hit the 80s as a single woman in New York City and began adventuring. That’s when I became a metaphysician.

And even now I trust my life to simply unfold. I follow my nudges and hunches and go adventuring.

Do I have a dream or a plan? Not at 90 I don’t but I do recognize the path is opening and I have a strong calling to follow it. And I didn’t expect that to happen at my age. But here I go exploring – again.

What Do Pagans Believe In?

“Pagans believe that nature is sacred and that the natural cycles of birth, growth and death observed in the world around us carry profoundly spiritual meanings. Human beings are seen as part of nature, along with other animals, trees, stones, plants and everything else that is of this earth.”

I am a pagan.

“Pagans have been broadly defined as anyone involved in any religious act, practice, or ceremony which is not Christian. Jews and Muslims also use the term to refer to anyone outside their religion.”

That still makes me a pagan, a follower of nature and a caretaker of our planet.

Are you a pagan?

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Set Up Protection

I now live in a long-term care facility. That means there is a lot of unbalanced energy coming from the residents. I set up protection around me and strengthen it even day. Each morning, I clear out any negative energy that was released during the night through my dreams and sleep. I set up a transformative sphere that keeps negative energy out and transforms my own energy to keep them positive.

I can use the Transformative Sphere in any situation – from being alone to being in a group of people. The Transformative Sphere is there in an instant to transform any negative thoughts or energy you come across.

Offer gratitude for the protection and proceed along your path.

Be aware of the times you need protection. You can put it up in a second.

===OUTER WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

What Do You Need To Release?

The Winter Solstice December 21 was the beginning of a time of release that extends to March 21st. This is a time of release, to let go of the old self, and to prepare for new beginnings—the new growth of spring.

What beliefs do you need to examine and which ones do you need to release?

Since I’m no longer living alone and now have this great group of support people around me, I need to change my beliefs and intentions around how I want to participate in the world now. This is a perfect time to let go of the old and to bring in the new.

What do you want to bring into your life? What choices and habits do you need to change for that to happen?

I need to be less anti-social. I have recently begun to sit in my wheelchair in my doorway and speak to anyone who goes by. It makes me feel a tad social and helps me to know who is here too.

What do you need to question? What do you need to release? Do that.

What Is Missing From Your Life And What Steps Will You Take To Correct It?

Sometimes you don’t know you’re missing something in your life until it shows up again. I thought I had an abundance of friends with whom I talked on Zoom on a regular basis until I moved and suddenly had a great deal of in-person interaction with vibrant younger people in deep service on the staff here. It was this dramatic change that made me realize what I had been missing in my life. It has brought out a different aspect of me that I haven’t shown for quite a while, as in I’m kind of wise-cracking funny sometimes.

Fixing something is not as hard as figuring out what is missing in the first place because things just gradually disappear or are replaced in your life and you don’t notice they’re gone.

I had several things I should leave out – like watching too many reruns of Diagnosis Murder and Murder She Wrote and playing Spider Solitaire. I have not done any of those in my eight weeks over here. And I’ve been a lot more productive online writing on my computer. And I’ve had more in-person conversations than I’ve had in the past 13 years.

I think the hard part is that whatever is left gradually changes and you’ve made subtle adjustments all the time as it just snuck away. If something left abruptly, you would probably notice it.

I can truthfully say that physical activity was pretty much missing from my previous life but now that I have access to the recumbent bike in physical therapy. That’s a three day a week bit of exercise that I get to do. And I’m counting sitting in my wheelchair Pearl and exercising my legs to rock back and forth but I want to increase my daily practice – by quite a bit. I am the only guy that can make that happen.

You get busy and don’t take time to see your friends. Or you make a new friend and leave some of your old friends behind because you don’t have time for all of it.

Life is like a river flowing. It moves around and over but progress is up to you because you always have choice in your life and the things that are important to you. Do that.

What is missing from your life and what steps will you take to correct it?

How Do You Offer Comfort?

I actually have no business writing this because I don’t think I’m particularly good at offering comfort to anyone. I walked this world alone for far too much to know how to accept comfort let alone give it. That’s because I know that my response to my feelings are totally up to me. So I guess my version of comfort would be to help people find their own inner strength to keep going. Not to say “I’m sorry” but more to say “How can I help you regain your balance?”

That’s an interesting idea actually because people are given a problem and are looking to regain their balance so they can continue on with their life. What steps would I take to help someone regain their balance?

I don’t have a clue. Because on one hand the person has to have time to grieve what she’s gone through. To help someone in grief is to help them regain their balance and tread a new path without whatever has gone away. So I suggest that in a very gentle fashion you help someone look to the path ahead and make some choices around how they want to continue.

I haven’t been in that situation many times in my life. How would you like to the comforted? Do that for someone else.

Mindful Eating

I don’t eat mindfully but I wish I would. There was a scene in The Wedding Planner where Jennifer Lopez who obviously lived alone, very mindfully brought her TV tray to the couch, and carefully laid her napkin in her lap and set about to eat alone. She was a wedding planner making people happy but she was also taking care of herself even in her aloneness. She was treating herself with love and dignity.

On the other hand, I continue to watch the alarming and depressing news as I eat. I have a better choice and I need to make it. I will turn and look out of my very large windows to see what changes I can observe in nature I can see. That’s pretty simple – actually turn my view in a new direction. Will you join me?

The People We Serve

I recently had the most fascinating conversation with a nurse from the agency who works for the jail in Jackson County, Missouri which is a tough neighborhood in Kansas City. She has worked there for five years and is the most no-nonsense woman I have met in my life. She is young and seasoned and likes working there because the doctors give her a fair amount of autonomy.

It was interesting to hear her talk about people repeating their offenses simply because they were mean. That’s an interesting take on it. I don’t know anyone who is mean and I’m glad I don’t. I guess the opposite of mean is kind. I started to write that I’m too self-focused to turn and be kind but I have certainly been open to meaningful conversations with many of the staff here and in filling my own openers and curiosity I am undoubtedly filling a need of theirs.

Are you aware of how you serve others? It may be as simple as your presence with your upbeat view of life and your motivating work ethic. Know that your mere presence has an effect on others. Be a light in the world.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

Winter Solstice

The Winter Solstice is a major turning point. The explanation I needed to hear and pass along was in Nick Polizzi’s newsletter. (Founder of The Sacred Science)

“Ancient cultures like the Egyptians, the Maori, the Maya, the Celts, the Druids, the Inca and so many others – all celebrated Solstice.

In the Chinese Taoist tradition, winter solstice is considered the most yin (dark / feminine / damp) day of the calendar. Energy comes to a momentary point of pause, before it gives birth to yang (light / masculine / heat).

Yin and yang form the basis of Chinese medicine and according to this school of wisdom, one cannot exist without the other. These two seemingly opposite forces are intimately connected and complementary.”

Winter Solstice is a time of deep change. What do you want to create in the coming year? How are you looking to expand your place of service in the unfolding new year? What changes will you make at this energetic point in time?

My current path is new and unfolding. The person who gave me a shower today is James and he came over from Africa at the age of 18. He likes to listen to African music and I showed him my Kalimba (thumb piano) and Djembe (drum) and made a new friend.

My path widens. And deepens.

===DEEPER SONG DISCOVERIES===

Insights and Resources to Explore

The Top 10 Guided Meditations of 2022 from Mindful Magazine

===GUIDANCE FROM OUR COSMIC COUNSELORS ===

Listen Beyond the Voice Within

How Can We Deepen Our Place of Service?

My Journey to The Cosmic Counselors:

I find myself in the misty circle in the center of the forest. I stand in a circle of light workers. We are there to be placed in service. There is a humming noise. It is the sound of the gentle flapping of the wings of a lot of butterflies. They fly around us. We understand that we are to take flight and go beyond the familiar to seek our place of service. We are to climb the nearby mountain and view the entire valley. We are to contemplate on our choices and select one or two to explore to see where we most resonate and how we might serve. We make our decision based on what we observe, what we feel, and what our inner guidance tells us.

It may be an entirely new place of service or it may be a deeper expression of what you were doing now. Explore the possibilities before you make your choice. We, as butterflies in service, understand and fly off to find our next adventure.

I find myself back in my Sacred Garden. The Directors sit by my side. “What did you discover,” he asks. “That I have found my next place of service – the staff here at Evergreen. And that form is unfolding. I am to follow my inner guidance and go exploring to find the most impactful place and way that I can serve.” My journey ends.

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEARERS===

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Participate

We had a Christmas party for the residents here. Many people had a staff member bring them. Maggie brought me. I met more staff – the manager of the website to whom I immediately offered to write a couple of articles and the CEO who asked if his daughter, who is into crystals, could come visit me. I guess I’m getting known for my different ways.

My lessons are two-fold. Do you own thing and reach out in service where you feel called.

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Support and Encouragement for our Unfolding Role in the Future

In Honor of Winter

In the depth of winter,
I finally learned
that within me there lay
an invincible summer.

― Albert Camus

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

The Backpack Journey

Listen to my
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the
Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

My New Helper

My newest helper is a wheelchair. She is sleek and black and tells me her name is Pearl. She was measured to fit me and she has a bag on the back to carry the foot holders. And she is going to be a great new place for me to sit during the day. She’s very comfortable. And she will take me on adventures too. I mentioned to a nurse named Stephanie that I wanted to have some flowers for her and she said “We have lots of flowers around, let me go look for some.” She soon came back with a perfect purple fake flower and promptly put it on the front of Pearl’s arm. It is a jaunty effect.

So now I have another friend and helper to get me where I need to go.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

The Helper

Help comes in all forms. We just have to learn to recognize it and accept it.

Help comes in all forms. We just have to learn to recognize it and accept it. It may be an idea or something physical that helps us move forward.

Help comes in all forms. We just have to learn to recognize it and accept it. It may be an idea or something physical that helps us move forward. Stay open to the pathways that the Universe opens and go exploring.

-Cara Lumen, December 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take. Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and suggest they
Join the Deeper Song Community

Past Issues of this newsletter are being curated on my site on a page called Insights.

Our Global Deeper Song Community

Subscribe to this weekly Deeper Song Newsletter at www.deepersong.com

My Books