• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Insights
  • Begin Here
  • Books
  • About

Come Sing a Deeper Song

Do You Have Moral Clarity?

December 18, 2022 By Cara Lumen

Do You Have Moral Clarity?

Living Our Deeper Song

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

The reporter was talking about how in the January 6 committee, the women were the ones who stepped in to report the misdeeds. The consensus was that women had a greater sense of moral clarity than the men did. I stopped to consider what it looked like and felt like to have moral clarity.

Moral clarity is about knowing right from wrong. We each have our own moral values. Where do they come from? How do they evolve within us?

I am watching many Republican politicians say one thing on a personal level and expressing an entirely different opinion to the news. They totally defy what is showing up as truth. 

What makes some people recognize and talk about a moral truth and others brush over it in denial? A lot of it in the US seems to be political ambition.

And so it is the women who have reported on the gross immorality that had taken place in the United States government under Trump.

Morality is about knowing right from wrong. The problem with the US situation is that those male politicians who know the difference between right and wrong are consciously choosing only what will forward their own political ambitions. And this is causing a crisis in the United States politician because Republicans seem unwilling to acknowledge the truth.

Too many people in the States are overlooking our truth or history. Others are trying to eradicate that truth from schools and laws and books in an effort to what? Eradicate history in this country by not telling how immoral the white population in particular was. 

How do you gain moral clarity? You look for your answers in a variety of resources. Learn about a topic from a variety of resources. Get clear about your own moral code. Be clear about what you believe and make certain that it is founded in truth.

When women stepped forward for the January 6th Committee, they had great moral clarity about what was right and what was wrong and their testimony blew the lid off the January 6th Committee reporting.

Be very clear about what is right and what is wrong. Develop your own strong sense of moral clarity and live by it.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I will work hard to stay on the right side of moral clarity 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

  • Look closely at what you see as right and wrong and make sure it is based on truth.
  • Keep strengthening your moral sense of what is right and wrong.
  • Live by those standards.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Path Corrections at the Winter Solstice

December 21st is Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the beginning of a new season. It is a good time to make corrections to your path.

First see how your path has changed. With hip replacement surgery scheduled, my goals have changed – walking better is now at the top of the list.

Notice what new doors have opened and which ones you wish to walk through. There is a whole new group of healers to work with in some form that is gradually revealing itself. I have to go exploring to find what path suits me the best right now.

What has changed and what new opportunities are opening up new possibilities? Examine your choices to male certain they are still rewarding and fulfilling ones. 

Keep exploring!

Give Yourself Permission To Follow Your Heart 

Sometimes we get so caught up in our worldly existence that we forget to follow our heart. Have you stopped recently to talk to your heart? To know what it wants for you next and know how that feels? Do you know what it’s telling you to do?

Perhaps write it down on a blank sheet of paper and begin to prioritize by simply listing your passions. Then look over the list and begin to prioritize them. What did you discover? How do you need to rearrange your time? What new choices do you need to make?

It helped me to identify a large umbrella that holds a lot of my activity. It’s been tricky to identify because I love to write, I like the mental stimulation. It is all of those things. And probably more.

I have a dry macular degeneration and am gradually working with diminished eyesight. So I really have to understand what lies beneath this need and desire to write to see how I can continue to address it even if the form has to change. 

What does your heart want? What does your heart need? And what new forms can you find to express that in?

Put aside the world you have created and sit with your heart. Make certain that you listen to it. Make certain that you express your heart in all that you do. How will that change what you have in your life right now? Give yourself permission to follow your heart and do some rearranging of your life choices. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Being In Nature Is Healing

I haven’t been outside very much in the last two years so it was really great when Nathan, one of my care partners, put me in my wheelchair and wheeled me out into the garden that is actually right outside my window. There is a koi pond and Master Gardeners take care of the garden. I told Nathan that anytime he had free time, I would go outside. I mentioned that to Stephanie, a nurse’s aide and the next day she came and took me out too! I got here with two types of philodendron but maybe this next summer I can get a red leaf coleus for summer and bring it inside in the fall. Do you have enough nature in your life? Go buy a plant and talk to it…

===OUTER WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

On Being Resourceful

Imaginative, intuitive, creative, bright – being resourceful is all of those things. It means thinking outside the box. It means looking around corners, it means exploring new paths. Sometimes it means taking chances. Go explore the unexpected or the unusual. It is that moment when you draw on your inner wisdom, your practical experience and your free-wheeling imagination with a deep knowing and a healthy amount of trust in order to make a decision and try something new or different or unexpected. 

How often do you do that? Are you an adventurous type who goes exploring at every opportunity? This is not about bravery, it’s more about having fun and trusting your instincts and insights.

Notice when you respond from your inner wisdom and learn to trust it as a wise guide and creative innovator.

Being resourceful is about using what you have at hand to move yourself forward in a unique and unexpected way. Do more of that and see how your life changes. 

Choosing A Life Of Service

Service takes many forms. It can mean helping people who are helpless and it can mean helping people who are strong. It’s your choice, your place of service.

In the 80s when I became a Reiki master teacher we stood in a circle and were asked to share how we would use Reiki in the world. The person before me said, “I’m going to teach all the poor people.” I knew then what I was to do. I said, “I am going to help people who are already flying to fly higher,” And so I have. 

Choose your place of service – helping people reach their own potential, helping people overcome a setback, helping the environment or a cause. Go exploring to see what calls to you and then do the work.

On-Going Learning

Over the past seven years, I have depended heavily on The Shift Network for the on-going education that I wish to receive. Beside their paid classes, they have free summits on all sorts of topics that allow you to explore a topic and make informed choices. I have extensively studied Shamanism and Qigong. I have studied the Native American Flute and the drum and sound healing. As I understand the topics better, I found other teachers I wanted to study with.

Sounds True is another resource for interesting classes and books. I need to remember to explore TED Talks more regularly because there is great information there. They give away a lot of free information in order to draw you into their work. Go exploring more to find new topics to explore. 

My problem is that I don’t know what I want to learn next. I looked into sound healing but it’s not a deep calling for me although I have some tuning folks and use sound in my spiritual practice. 

What topic do you want to explore next? What do you want to learn next? Do some research and find some free introductory classes to take you more deeply into a topic so that you know what you want to commit to learn next. 

I love to learn. I hope I never stop. Right now, I don’t know what I want to learnnext so I guess I’ll just wait until something knocks on my door and calls out to me. Keep exploring, there are great learning opportunities out there. Get on Google and find them. 

Be Present At Work

I become so absorbed in writing that I disappear into my work. It is rewarding, exciting, stimulating and satisfying. I totally lose myself in the process of creating and capturing and responding to an idea I want to explore. 

How do you feel when you are at work? Are you fully present? Are you having a good time? Do you leave your work with a feeling of accomplishment? Do you leave with a feeling of satisfaction at work well done? 

Perhaps pause before you leave your place of employment to offer gratitude for being able to do work that is rewarding and satisfying and provides a good quality of life for you and your family. 

If you can do none of those things, you deserve to find yourself new employment. 

First list your passions – those that interest you and have called to you throughout your life. What kind of profession allows you to work with those passions? I have volunteered to write newsletters for assorted organizations for free because I love to organize ideas into written form. I have written radio content. I have written television commercials. I have written poetry and books and podcasts and newsletters. Writing is at the core of the majority of my jobs. But I’m also a really good organizer so sometimes I have had jobs that call upon that skill more than any other. 

Identify the skills they give you the most pleasure. Identify the skills that are the most marketable. And keep an eye on your overarching passion as you find the perfect place of employment. 

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

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Shared Vison

I’m working on my vision for the world and I’m having a hard time because there sure are a lot of places that need help. 

I think my vision should start with the planet or we won’t have a place to live. One solution would include eliminating all the fossil fuels and using the many remaining replacements that have already appeared. In my vision I will raise the consciousness of everyone to individually take mindful steps to care for our planet by way of the products we use, what we recycle, how we care for the earth around us. So raising our collective consciousness about preserving the planet would be high on my list.

Then we have the people who hate other people. The vicious eruption of hatred in the US is my first thought because that’s where I live. But there is hatred and suppression going on in way too many places in the world. I don’t understand evil or purposefully doing harm to another so I think my vision will include an opening of hearts and a sense of a peaceful world community. That’s a big one. And it’s going take some doing even to imagine that. But it is our imagination and visioning that are the core creator of the creative process to make change happen. 

So part of my process needs to be actual visioning. I have to visualize a peaceful, whole, healed, vibrant planet. I have to envision people coexisting peacefully. I have to envision those people mindfully caring for the planet and for the animals on the planet and for each other. And somehow I have to envision everyone caring about the well-being of everyone else. 

If our imagination is one of the ways we create change, what kind of world are you imagining? 

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

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations 

Nothing Happens Without A Purpose

We may not like this, but nothing happens without a purpose. It is a lesson, a door opening, an opportunity knocking, but whatever it is, it is something we need to examine and consider and explore and learn from.

And sometimes if we don’t get the lesson, the lessons just keep coming back at us. It’s taken me three years of semi-isolation that included two years of gradually increasing physical impairment to get that I needed to move into long-term care. That was a long lesson. When I got here, it took me about a day to figure out that my new friends were among the staff and they were younger people who were joyously and deeply in service and it turned my life around. So some lessons take a while but others can be pretty instantaneous. 

I think pretty much everything is a lesson. A casual encounter with someone who inspires you and motivates you to take a next step. A meaningful relationship that shows you how to be steady and compassionate and caring. A failed project is a wonderful lesson. It frees you up to open new doors and have new experiences. 

I had to get pummeled before I made the decision to make this move. But that was because I didn’t get the message sooner even as my physical condition began to change.

My previous major cross-country moves were all done quite impulsively and the decisions were made in a matter of minutes if not seconds. The need for this move across the street has been beating me on the head for over a year. 

Nothing happens without a purpose, we just have to get the message. What message has been trying to get to you?

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

Expanding Awareness

Journey to the Sacred Feminine

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

===CARA’S CORNER===

What Are Your Expectations For Aging?

Granted this is long-term care but in talking to the staff, they can only identify one other resident that is looking for mental stimulation. I will try to meet him. Why do we give up our minds as we age?

One of the reasons I got so isolated over a year or two was there was no one interesting to talk to. It was a senior community and I was the only person being active in worldly things. I had one good in-person friend who was the social worker but the rest of my friends were all online and we still meet regularly on Zoom. Therefore I had only one person to have an in-person informative conversation with, so I unknowingly and gradually became quite isolated.

So why are all these old people sitting around being old? What happened that they gave up their personhood in order to just be old? 

Is that an expectation we hold for ourselves? Is it our expectation we hold for others? Is the way of old people to sit around and just be old? Uninterested in much? Never learning anything new? 

Now I admit that I am behind on some technical things because I don’t have occasion to use them. And now I have this eyesight thing that makes it all a bit tricky. Do we get behind because we stop exploring or stop pushing ourselves a bit? Probably. I think aging is like any other point in our life, we have to keep pushing ourselves and stretching ourselves and exploring and trying new things. 

I’m one of five people in this whole community that will keep up their maintenance physical therapy. Five people out of 30 on this wing. I watch my suite-mate sit in her wheelchair all day and make no effort to restore her strength as she watches reruns of 50-year-old game shows and western shows. She refuses to go to physical therapy, she allows herself to be lifted in and out of bed. She’s quite a bit younger than I am. 

We have to do the work. We have to do our version of whatever it takes to keep moving, to keep our brains agile, to maintain our relevance in the world. 

I maintain my feeling of relevance by writing this newsletter. I write it because it helps me learn what I need to learn next and it opens my heart to share it with you. I don’t exactly see myself taking any more online classes because the money is no longer there but I sure will find other ways to learn.

What are your expectations for aging? Are you raising the bar high enough? 

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

On Raising The Bar

I have to set my own goals. I have to raise my own bar. I am the one in charge of my destiny. 

I have to set my own goals. I have to raise my own bar. I am the one in charge of my destiny. Do I expect enough of myself? Do I continue to challenge myself? Do I continue to expect the best for myself? 

I have to set my own goals. I have to raise my own bar. I am the one in charge of my destiny. Do I expect enough of myself? Do I continue to challenge myself? Do I continue to expect the best for myself? I am the only one who can do that for me, I must do the work.

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 

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

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Pay Attention To The Signs

December 11, 2022 By Cara Lumen

Pay Attention To The Signs

Living Our Deeper Song

Pay Attention To The Signs

Living Our Deeper Song

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

We are guided by the universe in many different ways. Sometimes it is a circumstance. Sometimes it is an interaction with others, sometimes it is simply a deep knowing.  

We must learn to communicate with the universe, the unseen world, and we must learn to interpret the guidance we receive, even the most subtle messages.

Notice the processes you go through to make a change. The questioning, the doubt, the worry, trying different versions on for size. Each time you may use a different path of discovery to uncover the subtle messages.

Some signs are silent, like the gradual changing of the colors of fall. Some changes are rampant like thunderstorms rapidly darkening the sky and a sudden downpour filling the creeks to overflowing. Change is always present. We can use it to move forward in the direction of our choosing.

I made a list of the changes I want to make in the coming year. In my case it centers around two hip replacements and the recovered ability to walk more easily. 

But there are other areas of growth that I want to explore and expand. And I’m going to let those unfold as I live my life.

I’m in a new environment and I get to watch how I respond and what changes I am prompted to make. I must be observant and aware and make my choices conscious and forward thinking. 

And of course, there will be surprises, opportunities for new friends, new insights, new online learning adventures to expand my awareness and my potential. Can you sense and see the steady stream of offerings from the universe and consider each one of them fully? Make a choice, add it to your life and then keep looking for the changes that manifest. Pay attention to the signs the universe gives you as your path widens with opportunity.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I am ready for change. I stay open to the signs and signals of the universe and I choose my path wisely. 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Listen to the signs and signals and insights that the universe gives you. Start a list of possibilities.
  • Explore the potential for those possibilities and listen to your inner wisdom as you do. 
  • Design a series of actions to provide you with the experience of well-being in the coming year. 

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Create A Charging Station For Yourself 

My new place of service is the remarkable and dedicated healing staff of the Evergreen Community which is now my home. I had an idea to create a charging station so that anyone who entered the room would receive the healing, balancing and supportive energy from this charging station. And they don’t even need to know it existed.  

On the dresser in my room is a Himalayan salt lamp with a wrought iron design of a forest. I decided to use the salt crystals to hold the intentions.

The Rainbow Weavers is a group of dear friends who meet monthly on Zoom and they helped me create my charging station. We took turns charging the rocks with specific intentions for every person who comes into my space.

In my case, because people come in and out all the time, we did some general space cleaning for my room, although a thorough space cleaning takes more time than we had in our Rainbow Weaver’s meeting on Zoom. It seemed important to also put positive, clearing energy on the threshold for protection and to clear the energy as people came in and out. So one of my decisions was to put a dreamcatcher on the door to my room for protection and to hold more positive energy there too.

For our meeting on Zoom, I took the salt crystals out of the lamp and we took turns entering a specific quality into one rock at a time. We choose a quality that they wanted to offer then to people who came into my room. Some of them were: inner peace, centeredness, deep understanding, clarity, confidence. You get the idea.

So now that any time someone comes into my space, they receive positive energy for their lives and for their profession.

What kind of a charging station will you make for yourself? Where will you put it? Invite a Cleaning Station into your space and notice what changes occur.

Observe And Let Go

Sometimes we have rocky days. Sometimes we worry. Sometimes we are angry. Sometimes we are scared. And sometimes we are very happy. When you have an extreme emotional response, simply observe it and let it go. Release it, particularly if it has a negative effect on you.

That’s easier said than done you say. Not if you wrap a little ceremony around it. Thank it for its input and release and send it on its way. Particularly if it is a worry or concern. Note what steps you can take to correct the worry, then release it. Then take the steps you discovered.

Dwelling on a situation or problem or concern clutters up the space you need to give it in order for it to resolve organically. And it will resolve – with or without your worry and concern. Life is in a constant pattern of change so nothing will ever stay the same.  

Observe and get the lesson. Then release it to its natural unfolding. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Give Yourself Permission

Do you need to give yourself permission? Do you need to give yourself permission to be well? Do you need to give yourself permission to be happy? Do you need to give yourself permission to be successful? 

Isn’t it interesting how we can stop ourselves from attaining a certain goal simply because we don’t believe we deserve it or believe it is possible? How much are we stopping ourselves simply by not giving ourselves permission to succeed? Look closely at what is not manifesting in your life and give yourself permission to have it. Change is really that simple. 

===OUTER  WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

CreativityAnd Imagination Are Powerful Tools- How Well Are You Using Them? 

We make stuff up. We use our imagination to create new situations, new inventions, new circumstances. We also use our imagination to create unfounded fears.  

Inventions are created by our imagination.  New possibilities are created by our imagination. And sometimes our imagination makes up things that simply are not true.

Our creativity and imagination are powerful tools for bringing things into manifestation.  We are to cultivate them and encourage them and hone them so they help us create our best lives.

We use our imagination to explore possibilities, to see how an idea fits, how it feels, and if it’s something we want to bring into our life. 

We use our creativity to figure out ways to bring elements of our imagination into being. Learn to use both your imagination and your creativity in all aspects of your life to explore, to examine, and to create. Creativity and imagination are powerful tools. Learn to use them well. And often.

The Power of Mental Stimulation 

I had more mental stimulation in my first month at Evergreen then I’ve had in the last 13 years and it has made all the difference in the world about how I feel about life. This mental simulation is coming from the staff who is deeply in service.  These are mostly people fairly early in their career path, and they are full of enthusiasm and the desire to live more deeply. And that is not the case with a majority of seniors I have lived with for 13 years. I have gradually withdrawn into my own counsel and leaned heavily on my online friends.

This dramatic change in who I have become around these younger people propelled me into a whole new level of enthusiasm and energy and participation. My sense of humor has returned. People are interested in what I’m doing and thinking. There are many warm and humorous exchanges throughout my day. some are interested in my website and some have listened to my podcasts. None of the seniors at Ridgeview had a clue what I was doing. Once again it was the younger staff who were my friends. But there were only a few of them over there.

Keep an eye out for gradual changes that sneak up on you and are destructive to your overarching expectations. I participated when I first went to independent living at Ridgeview village but then it got to the point where I had been there and done that. I am also a fan of people who are actively learning and exploring their world and my friends are all 30 years younger than I am. This new group of people I am touching base with are mostly 50-60 years younger than I am. I am interacting with and touching lives several generations ahead. That’s an interesting feeling to acknowledge your role in the future through your interaction with another person. 

I’ve had more mental stimulation in these first six weeks than I have had in the last 13 years. Keep an eye out for the subtle changes that lead to isolation and loneliness. They can sneak up on you and be quite destructive.

I’ve taken a lot of classes over the years, including recently, but this personal interaction is quite different and incredibly stimulating and rewarding. Go hang out with people who stimulate you mentally. It will make a big difference in how you experience your life. 

What Do You Want To Learn Next?

I’ve been giving some thought to what I want to learn next and I’m still at the searching stage.

I am taking my seventh Qigong class and part of my progress will come with the hip replacements when I am able to stand up better. I will have lots of physical catch-up work to do then. A lot of recovery work.

Perhaps my next step is not so much about learning as it is about doing. Putting into action all these things on which I have spent so much time and enjoyed learning.

I have to learn some new skills to compensate for the dry macular degeneration. I would really very much rather not have to do that because so much of my mental stimulation and entertainment comes from learning on my computer. I have to trust that will work out for the highest good and that there is not much for me to do right now. 

So maybe my emphasis is not so much about learning something new as about owning things I have already studied and know that I want to add to my life more deeply. 

This doesn’t mean I won’t be tempted to take another class but perhaps I will focus on deepening and applying knowledge rather than acquiring it.

So I will keep a close eye on the free summits that are on The Shift Network and other places, find a few podcasts to follow, and perhaps try my first audiobook. What do you want to learn next?

The Three Pinecones

Three small pinecones sit in a round wooden dish on my desk as my honoring of Winter Solstice, December 21st. They are the perfect size for my space and remind me of the grace, beauty and tenacity of the evergreen. I will use them as a role model for my life.

One of the staff got them because another member of the staff was aware that I needed them and my request became a line item in a meeting.  Someone knew where some pine cones from an art project were stored and brought me three.

How will you honor the Winter Solstice? What kind of small reminder can you keep around you to support you in deepening awareness of your path? 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

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

A Lakota Prayer

This came from Nick Polizzi
Host of Remedy: Ancient Medicine for Modern Illness
& Founder of The Sacred Science

Sometimes all that’s needed to shift our reality is a little wisdom, spoken to us with gentleness and a pure heart. I came across this powerful Lakota prayer a few days ago and wanted to share it with you. I hope it helps you on your path. I know it did for me.

Lakota Prayer

Great Mystery,
teach me how to trust
my heart,
my mind,
my intuition,
my inner knowing,
the senses of my body,
the blessings of my spirit.
Teach me to trust these things
so that I may enter my Sacred Space
and love beyond my fear,
and thus Walk in Balance
with the passing of each glorious Sun.

According to certain traditions, the Sacred Space is the space between exhalation and inhalation. To Walk in Balance is to have Heaven (spirituality) and Earth (physicality) in harmony.

At the core of this timeless wisdom is the word “trust”. When did we stop trusting ourselves? When did we start giving that trust, that power, away?

In many ways the healing path is a process of reestablishing that trust with the infinite that resides within us, just waiting to be activated.

Create Your Own Solstice Ceremony for Gratitude and Change

As with every change in season, the Winter Solstice is a time for introspection, resolution, and re-choosing in order to have new choices and make some path corrections. So whether in your hemisphere it is time for Winter Solstice or Summer Solstice, this is a good time to pause and look over where you are and rechoose where you want to go.

In your Solstice Ceremony, create some time for introspection. How are you doing? Is your life going the direction you want it to? What is standing in your way? What do you need to change? What do you need to release?

My suggestion is that you take several areas of your life that seem to be the most dominant at this moment and ask yourself these questions: How are you doing? What do you want to change? Exactly what steps do you want to take? 

How are you doing? 

Some areas of your life will immediately jump out at you as needing to be changed or modified. I have had such dramatic changes since my move that they are dramatically noticeable. What might have been on my mind six weeks ago is no longer there. So simply start where you are and look around and see what is working right now and what’s not. Go with what’s working.

What do you want to change? 

I have two areas to focus on to create change. The first one is my physical state. I am expecting a major shift when I have my first hip surgery in January followed by another one three months later. Because I have access to physical therapy here, that will make a huge difference in changing my mobility problem.  I expect that whole process to open up entire new avenues of participation for me.

The second level of change I see has to do with how I participate in the world. I’m on a roll with that one. My new focus is the kind and caring people on the staff here. Their presence and our interaction just pulled me out of a five-year period of isolation. And that is going to make a huge difference. How I see it unfolding has definitely begun.

The third opportunity is my eyesight and I just have to trust and know that I can handle this change but I’m not looking forward to it. I’m not sure exactly how I will handle it. My participation online is hugely important to me so I will keep working very hard to find ways to keep doing that.

When you identify an area for change, get creative about how to fix it. And with your belief that you can fix it, start there. Identify a noticeable place to begin, a place in which you could begin to create change that will affect the whole. It helps if that change is really noticeable right away. 

I think my plan is loosely to identify what needs changing, to clear out what is not working and then go exploring.

Sometimes things start to clear out the minute you start changing directions. As I began to get physical help, my options changed. I have physical help to do physical things that upgrade the standard of living and that releases me from the challenge of trying to do it myself. They are offering nursing skills and physical therapy that I did not have access to before. Getting outside help is one way to help yourself make change.  

I have so much work to do around my changing eyes. I have to work on my internal fear level. I have to look at my options to replace how I do my work. I have to work on both my fear level and my hope level. Some changes are easier to do than others. But change is ever-present. We have to learn to embrace  and work with it. 

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

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Deepen A Connection

Who would you like to get to know? How will you go about doing that? 

As we fly through our busy lives, it’s a good idea to take time to notice who is around you and choose someone to get to know better, especially with people you know have similar interests. Perhaps deepen your acquaintance by asking them how they are expressing themselves around your shared interest. 

Take a conversation deeper by sharing your concerns and feelings or by asking their opinion on how they might solve a problem you have, or their opinions on a topic. Deepening an acquaintance is as simple as taking time to ask a question or two that broadens your understanding of each other and enables you to get to know each other on a deeper level. Who do you get to know better today?

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

Expanding Awareness

How to DeepenYour Cosmic Consciousness

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

===CARA’S CORNER===

The Power of Downsizing

I learned such a huge lesson about possessions when I had to downsize so dramatically in order to move to Evergreen. I really had to get down to two core areas that are important to me – my spiritual practice and my writing and connection with the world through the computer.

This was interesting because I had to give away some major crystals. I had to give away most of my drums and other musical instruments that I had gathered to be part of my spiritual practice. I did that by gradually gathering around me the crystals I wanted to keep closest and would fit into the space that I would have. And when it was full, I had to stop. And the rest Ilet go. 

What are you hanging onto that is crowding you? Apparently, my son-in-law is holding onto all sorts of things from his parents. When you add all the crystals I gave to my daughter, their house is even fuller. I suggested what I had just learned – the idea of choosing what you really want now and let the rest go. What can you clean out today? What are you ready to release to make room for something new?

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

On Making Room

I let go. I let go of things I love in order to make room to move forward with a lighter load.

I let go. I let go of things I love in order to make room to move forward with a lighter load. I thank them, bless them and release them.

I let go. I let go of things I love in order to make room to move forward with a lighter load. I thank them, bless them and release them.

My space now holds only what supports me in moving forward. 

– 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  

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

Filed Under: Uncategorized

What Do You Want To Learn Next?

December 4, 2022 By Cara Lumen

What Do You Want To Learn Next?

Living Our Deeper Song

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

I’m beginning to think about the year ahead. What do I want to learn next? 

There are some physical things I want to accomplish. I will have both hips replaced and that will certainly affect my mobility which I then need to cultivate and improve upon. I am now on restorative physical therapy and get to ride a recumbent bike three times a week and do some stretching exercises at a counter. I love it and it is making many encouraging differences. What circumstance is improving for you that will open new doorways of opportunity?

I have to get creative about working around the dry macular degeneration which is affecting my eyes. That means cultivating the use of more podcasts as a major learning tool for one. What doorway seems to be closing for you that you have to seek out new avenues of opportunity to explore?

What new in-service goals are you setting for yourself? I have this entire population of very kind supportive staff that I wish to support in return. The form that will take seems to be unfolding over time. My sense is that it will be in one-on-one interactions. Even as I write that I know it is so much more than that. I am already setting a new tone, a new expectation for myself. My role is unfolding and making itself known.

What do I want to learn? I want to keep practicing Qigong. As my body improves, I want to establish that as a thoughtfully done daily practice standing up the way it should be done. The hip surgery will make that possible. 

I’m not sure what my spiritual goals are yet but I want to both expand and deepen them. I have choosen to leave the door to the hall open during the day and there is a lot of traffic going in and out between vitamins and temperature and other things so I’m still working on how I am to be in service. I’m really working out learning everyone’s name and have certainly established some friendships already. I have not met any other residents except my suite mate. 

It’s not like it was when I was alone in my own living room. But I do get to sit by a big window and observe the seasons and the movement of the morning sun. That’s a good place to begin one’s spiritual practice each day.

What changes will you make in your spiritual life? You might consider a new form of meditation or ceremony or move your spiritual practice to a different time of the day. Perhaps you experiment for a month to see what resonates. 

Spend some time looking closely for what needs have emerged and how you can creatively meet them. Explore and experiment and make some creative plans to meet your needs in the coming year.  

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I am willing and ready to make the changes that will deepen my daily life experience.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Identify the areas of your life that need improvement.
  • Look at the areas of your life that are working and see what elements make them successful. 
  • Look for any new needs. Examine what you are doing now, explore different ways to explore new avenues and create a new plan for the coming year. 

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

What Is Missing From Your Life?

Ask yourself, “What is missing from my life and what step will I take to correct that.”

Now that I have spent nearly six weeks here in long-term care I can look more closely at the rhythm of my life and identify what is missing, what I want to add, and how I will do that.

One thing I have learned is that I had grown more and more isolated before I moved and having this much daily interaction with really kind people is making a huge difference in my emotional well-being. Notice how your life changes when you redirect your attention. 

I already have plans for after my hip replacements to walk in the garden here and sit out in the gazebo in the sunshine. I also know that the staff is going to be a source of personal growth and mental stimulation for me. It will not come from other residents. That helps me plan and focus my attention and my activities. 

I love to learn and I’m going to explore more podcasts as one of my resources. And I have yet to try audiobooks.

What new venues will you explore in order to expand your life experience? Do you need to join a group that shares your interests? Are there some causes that you care about? Do you need a friend who shares your interests? Are there classes that you want to take, a new activity to undertake? It’s good to always keep learning. At least I find that to be so.

Notice how you spend your time and be more selective. For instance, I was watching way too many television reruns and playing way too much Spider Solitaire. With this new environment and these new friends, I have stopped that and there’s a very large space left to rethink how I want to experience those hours, not simply make them pass by. So far it’s taken the form of a gradual increase in my writing. 

Rethink your choices, go exploring, and expand your experiences. Life will be more fun that way. 

Celebrate Your Uniqueness

There is only one you and that’s a good thing. One you to be in the world, only one you to be a friend to your friends, and only one you to do the work you do. There are certain things only you can do so do them with love and pleasure and skill. Celebrate your uniqueness every moment of your life. Be the best “you” you can be. It will make the world a better place.  

How will you be a better you today? 

How Do You View Change?

I’ve been in my new home in long-term care for six weeks and I realized that the experience of change stems directly from how you view the opportunities that open up because of that change. 

For instance, there are a whole lot of physical things I no longer have to be concerned about. I am well fed. I am well cared for. I am well nursed. My laundry is done and my vitamins are brought to me. And I have nursing available 24/7.  I have new opportunities and access to things like physical therapy that I did not have before. I have a whole lot of new friends among the staff, for that is the group that I identify with. They are the movers and shakers here and I am still a mover and shaker.  

If you focus in the wrong direction, you can make yourself pretty miserable. Instead of the smallness of my space I focus on the feeling of being tucked in. I sit in the morning sun by my nearly floor-to-ceiling windows to watch the birds at the feeder start their day. And I am safe. 

I really do celebrate this return to socialization with people who are interesting to know. I was spending huge amounts of time alone at Ridgeview and relied only on my wonderful friends online who are all in the vicinity of age 60 and are actively pursuing the next unfolding phase of their lives. I had very few in-person interactions. Now I have daily interactions with caring people and that has lifted my spirits tremendously.

When you find yourself in a new situation, don’t mourn what you left, celebrate what you are in the process of discovering. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Degrees of Discomfort

The nursing aides will give me a Tylenol when I ask but they always ask what degree of pain it is. I’ve been having some discomfort after I do the recumbent bike. So I have created a new level of so-called pain. A whimpering one. A cranky one. And a whiny one. Got to find your chuckles where you will. 

What Is Missing From Your Life and What Steps Will You Take To Correct That?

Several times a year it is really important to pause to see what is missing from your life and what steps you are willing to take to correct that. Maybe one big correction is staring you in the face or maybe you see a series of more subtle changes that need to be made. It’s a good idea to contemplate what changes you want to make and create plans around how to do that.

The hip replacements are going to change things for me for the better so that is a major focus for my year. This new environment has offered me a new service project and I have to figure out other ways to enrich my time. Each one of those is a really big project and the physical change will show me the most apparent steps to take. 

My new place of service has been identified and has a lot of unfolding to do. 

I don’t know where my love of learning will take me. I will just let that one unfold. I don’t have money for online classes anymore but there are many free ways to learn online. 

Leave room for the unexpected and be willing to go exploring.  What is missing from your life and what steps will you take to create that? 

Take Time For Self-Healing and Regeneration

Everything we are experiencing outside of ourselves is a reflection of our inner state. How are you doing? How is your life unfolding? You are the one who gets to make the changes. You are the one who will cause the shift. As within, so without. Do the work.

We are like a tree. We are in one place, this planet, with everything we need. 

Trees can’t receive help from outside sources for healing since they stand in one place. So they have everything within they need to heal while they are standing. A plant can grow a stem longer reaching for the sun or send its roots deeper into the earth. All kinds of inner movements are done to survive and thrive. We have all we need within us. We just have to do the work. 

As this world goes through such traumatic changes this will be a good time to spend some time in solitude and go within for answers. We need silence and inner work to do this. It is time to go within to repair and replace and strengthen on all levels.

What steps will you take to renew yourself? On the physical plane, the emotional plane, the mental plane and the spiritual plane? Or is it an interesting eclectic mix?

Work with the powerful vibration of colors and see where it leads you. Imagining feeling the space around you changing slowly and see how it affects your inner experience.

How will you set about meeting your current needs? 

Do the inner work, keep it simple it and pay attention to the guidance you are given both within and without.

===OUTER WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

How We Interpret Things

We make decisions in many moments in our lives based or how we interpret what has shown up. We may interpret based on a mood we are in. We may interpret from partial information. We may interpret from incorrect information. We may interpret from our feelings and needs in that particular moment. And all of those places and interpretations will change from day to day and even from moment to moment. So when you make a decision also look at where you’re coming from in order to make that decision. What beliefs? What information? What limitations and who is involved in the project itself? And be aware of those as influencing factors in your choice. Your mood will change, your circumstances will change, the opportunities to be flexible will change as you make decisions and move through your life. Be aware of the basis for the interpretations you make and adjust accordingly. 

In Pursuit of Peace

“Power is influence over external events.

Peace is influence over internal events.”

–James Clear

Cultivating inner peace is one of the most important and impactful things we can learn to do. We do it through introspection and we do it through listening to the multitude of messages from the universe. You attain peace by cultivating an awareness of the impact of your choices and the results that you are having and adjust accordingly. From that inner perspective comes great power over the external aspects of your life.

Actively cultivate inner peace through your meditation and spiritual practice. Live your life with an ever-deepening awareness of your inner resources. 

The View From The Other Person’s Side

Why is the other person responding the way she/he is? What is going on with their lives and their beliefs that creates that particular response? This is a particularly helpful awareness when someone is doing something that is totally opposite from what you choose to do. It doesn’t mean that you have to agree with them but if you can extend your awareness and even your empathy to the person with whom you are in conflict, it helps you understand them from a different viewpoint. Take time to understand where the other person is coming from and begin to build your relationship from there.

Keep Doing The Work

Use it or lose it, particularly as you get older and a little less agile. This no-doing on any plane sneaks up on you. 

There is so much encouragement and so much help in this long-term care facility and I have to be certain to do the work.

No one is going to do the work except you. No one is going to challenge you but yourself. No one is going to create the change accept you. 

Yes, there is lots of help here. All I have to do is follow their advice. That’s my role. That’s my responsibility. Do the work.

I had given up while living alone in my apartment. If it was hard, I stopped doing it. My life really changed as my walking capacity diminished. I couldn’t take out my trash. I couldn’t walk to do my laundry and I did not like walking the halls for exercise because it hurt my body and was not particularly fun to do. I had no encouragement or support. I was on my own to provide my motivation and I was not doing a very good job of it.

So what changed? I got access to help. I now have a restorative physical therapy person who comes to get me three times a week. I have access to a recumbent bike that I love to use as well as loving the results I am getting. And I have encouragement.

If you are stuck in a downward spiral, whether it’s physical or emotional, get some support to move through that and change directions so that you are motivated to help yourself again. It can be professional help, it can be help from a friend, it can be a change to a whole new venue. Perhaps you can be the friend offering encouragement and support to another. 

Here’s another thing I noticed. The more help I got in my independent living apartment, the less I began to do for myself. And that may be the trap that we all need to look out for. It became easier and easier to leave things for my homemaker to do.  And I kept doing less and less.  

My spirits have lifted by being around these incredibly loving and supportive people who encourage me at every turn and help me with the things that are no longer possible for me to do. 

So what is the difference here? I had help in my apartment and I did less.  I have a lot more help here and I’m doing more and want to keep doing more. What shifted within to make me want to do the work to get myself back on track?

I think the answer is hope. The recumbent bike helped me turn the corner. I love doing it, I can do it and it’s making a tangible difference. The prospect of the hip replacements opens up a whole new world of possibilities for change for me – and hope.  So is part of this shift about hope? The whole idea that I may be able to walk in the garden again is a very stimulating prospect and goal. We can plant things in a garden here but my goal is to simply walk in it.

I have gone from subconsciously giving up, to actively pursuing change with great positive expectations. In one sense I had given up because I didn’t know how to create the change for myself. I needed the insights and encouragement and skill that I have found here.

My hopes were raised with access to physical therapy and they have skyrocketed with a prospect of hip replacement.

What kind of spiral are you in regarding the circumstance in which you find yourself? Look for answers and find the ones that simulate and motivate you into action. And do that. 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

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

How Well Does Your Spiritual Practice Nurture You?

Is your spiritual practice designed in the best possible way to deeply nurture you in body, mind and spirit? Perhaps you would like to rearrange some of the elements you have placed in your spiritual practice and add new ones.

Your spiritual practice is meant to nurture you in all aspects of your life. It should be a source of serenity and comfort, a source of well-being and ever-expanding spiritual awareness. 

Our spiritual practice should nurture our body.  Physical practices like Qigong and Yoga have a spiritual base as they nurture and strengthen your body temple, but all exercise when done mindfully is spiritual.

A balanced spiritual practice both strengthens and calms your mind so that you move through your life with clarity of purpose and awareness of the nudges and insights the universe is constantly offering you.

And of course, a spiritual practice is designed to deepen your awareness of your oneness with all – your far-reaching interconnectedness in the Web of Life. It teaches you to listen to the voice within. It teaches you to become aware of the support and insights the universe constantly provides. It feeds your soul so that all you can be always comes from that place of oneness. 

Perhaps take time to examine the gifts your spiritual practice gives and see how you would like to alter it. Perhaps strengthen the physical element you pursue in order to quiet your mind and body to prepare to move into the deeper levels. Perhaps add drumming or singing to honor nature, the directions and the unfolding day. There might be some words of wisdom that you choose to contemplate. I have a box full of quotes that I like and I can pull one out each day to contemplate. Of course there is meditation. There are rattles. There are bells. There are crystals. How are you expanding and deepening your spiritual practice to nurture yourself on all levels – body, mind, and spirit? Do that. 

On Being Different

Although I am the only vegetarian resident here in Evergreen Long Term Care, I have met at least one vegetarian on staff.  My suite mate has crosses hanging all over her walls and her daughter brought her a small Christmas tree. I celebrate Winter Solstice and am trying to figure out where to get a pine cone for decoration. I’m the only resident who has dream catchers and sun catchers in the window. But then I have been joyfully a tad different all my life.  

When you find yourself in a situation in which you find you are quite different, what do you do?

I just do my own thing in my own space. I already know my friends are all going to be staff members. Follow your own path and encourage others to follow theirs.

We can learn from different cultural traditions. I remember a Jewish friend of mine in New York City who prepared a Passover supper for a few of her non-Jewish friends and explained its meaning and symbolism. 

Celebrating Winter Solstice is perhaps a time to strengthen some facets of your spiritual practice. 

Perhaps add a few simple elements that you use to celebrate. I have added paper that is dissolvable in water to help me release things. Experiment and thoughtfully add a few elements to your ceremony and find new ways to celebrate your own spiritual version of Winter Solstice. 

===GUIDANCE FROM OUR COSMIC COUNSELORS ===

Listen Beyond the Voice Within 

Releasing

Speak to me of releasing.

I go to my Secret Garden and am invited to cross the reflecting pond to join the three Cosmic Counselors in a circle. In the center of our circle is a fire. “Speak to me of releasing,” I say.

The first Cosmic Counselor says, “Releasing is about letting go and you can do that in many ways.” The fire in the center of our circle flares up and smoke rises to the sky. The smoke escapes and disappears in the darkness. The second Cosmic Counselor drops a piece of dissolvable paper with writing on it into water of the reflecting pool. She watches her words dissolve and disappear. The third Cosmic Counselor joins her at the reflecting pool and thoughtfully tosses a small pebble into the pond and watches the ripples disappear against the opposite shore.

“Find a form that seems to resonate with your feelings about releasing and create your own ceremonial words and manner of releasing.” 

Maybe you find a different form for what needs to be released. When you prepare to let something go, pay attention to the images that you release and the feelings they evoke and any messages that come in. It can be a simple ceremony or a complex one. Set an intention to release whatever you want to release and set about doing just that. Look to be sure you release it all.  Experiment with another form for the ceremony or repeat the one you did. 

Create your own ceremony for different purposes. Clear yourself with a Releasing Ceremony. Bless your day. Offer gratitude in general or for something specific. Create a ceremony of Blessing.  

Be conscious of what needs to be released. See if you can find a core belief that is stuck. Or an underlying fear that is holding you back. You may want to experiment in order to create the most effective releasing ceremony for you.

Once you feel you have released whatever you have chosen, notice how you feel. Is it lighter? Is it clear of pain? You might be tired from finally letting it go. And all of those responses might change with each releasing ceremony. It depends on you. And how often you do a releasing ceremony depends on you and what you have allowed to build up and how completely released you feel around whatever it is you have chosen to release. You might use a cycle of the moon as a time to have a releasing ceremony or the ending of a month. You decide when to create a releasing ceremony. If you choose to do one on a regular basis, that allows you to look over your life to see what needs to be released and create a ceremony that allows you to do so.”

I find myself across the reflecting pond sitting on the bench into my Secret Garden. Ancestor rabbit is there holding a bottle of soap bubbles and I sit in the shade of my worries and blow them away.

End of journey.

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

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

What Is A Light Bearer?

What is a Light Bearer and what do we do? I believe we are a group of humans with Guides from the Unseen World who are here to not only hold High Watch for the planet but to be its protectors. That means we are to live our best lives in service to the highest good for all. We do that with our focused energy and our mindful actions. It will take new forms but being a Light Bearer means that our heart is focused on the well-being of the whole earth and all that it encompasses.

As Individual Harps we must play our sweetest song and at the same time stay in harmony with this grand diverse orchestra of Light Bearers. Stay aware in your own heart that you are being called and continue to elevate your role and perform with your participation.  As Light Bearers we play a higher role in the evolution and well-being of our planet. You will be led to the work you are to further, the work you are to lead. That work is evolving as is your role. As an individual light bearer, make sure your daily light falls softly on the world around you and is uplifted and nurturing to whomever see it. Because a Light Bearer is an adventurer, it is our obligation to continue to expand our knowledge and our beliefs and our role and bring that awareness into our daily life expression. Have an open heart and focus on the highest good for all. That is the role of a Light Bearer. 

We are each individual harps in this Orchestra of Light Bearers. We must play our individual instruments well. And at the same time, we must keep our individual harp in harmony with the whole. We can do that. Raise your light and see where and how you are to expand your role in the world. 

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

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations 

The People You Are Around

I am finding very interesting, intelligent people to talk to among the staff. I talked to the head of maintenance about the 3-D printing of homes, recharging solar cars and artificial intelligence. Can you see why I love the mental stimulation here?

I have met a fellow writer and a fellow metaphysician and fellow vegetarian and the only other Cara I have met to date. This is the most in-person mental simulation I’ve had in the 13 years I’ve been in Kansas. I’m loving it. 

People are good at their jobs.  They like their work, and they like helping people and it shows.

Does your joy and appreciation for life show in how you express yourself?  I bet it does. 

=== OLD WOMAN HUMOR ===

I was getting ready for my shower.  We are wheeled down in a wheelchair to the shower room, helped to undress, hang on to grab bar and are positioned in a shower stool with a back and are given a shower by a Med Aide. I mentioned to my 82-year-old wheelchair-bound suite-mate that I had only been given showers by men so far and she said, “Aren’t you lucky!”

Who says we’re too old.

=== DEEPER SONG PHILOSOPHIES ===

Be a spot of ground where nothing is growing,
where something might be planted,
a seed, possibly, from the Absolute.

-Rumi 

Imagine you are an open field. You can plant whatever crop you choose in this field. It is as a spot of ground from the Absolute. What do you plant? What do you grow? What do you harvest? Keep cultivating the space where you are planted and make sure you are living your best life and are offering your best gifts to the world. Plant your field of life carefully and harvest it with love. 

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

Expanding Awareness

Journey to Our Ancestors to Expand Our Consciousness 

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

===CARA’S CORNER===

An Unexpected Kindness

I received an unexpected gift. Unexpected Blooms is a company that takes flowers from weddings and other occasions and recycles them into lovely bouquets to give away. Mine is a lovely arrangement of mauve roses and white snapdragons among other beautiful flowers. It was totally unexpected.  I wrote a thank-you note on my computer to be sent to them. Not only because I was happy and surprised to receive it but I want to encourage them to keep doing this really thoughtful act of kindness. What perfectly good something can you re-purpose to give to those who have less than you do? We have a place called Savers that is a thrift store that supports the Boys and Girls Club. I used to like to shop there a lot too but my kids gave away a whole lot of my stuff when I moved to the smaller place. 

Look around and notice how much you have that you really don’t need to see how you can pass it forward and put it in a box and give some of it away. Maybe in the summertime pass along a few extra vegetables or flowers from your garden. But most of all look at the possessions that you have that you don’t need anymore and don’t care about anymore and see what you can pass forward to grace someone else’s home. Share the wealth.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Letting Go

I let go of things. I let go of worries. I let go of what is not working. I clear my space and I make room for new insights and understanding.

I let go of things .I let go of worries. I let go of what is not working. I clear my space and I make room for new insights and understanding. What do I want to invite in? What do I want to learn? What experiences do I want to have? What deepening understanding? 

I let go of things. I let go of worries. I let go of what is not working. I clear my space and I make room for new insights and understanding. What do I want to invite in? What do I want to learn? What experiences do I want to have? What deepening understanding? I clear my space. I declutter my life and throw open the doors to new adventures. 

-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  

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

Filed Under: Uncategorized

The Nature of Spiritual Power

November 18, 2022 By Cara Lumen

The Nature of Spiritual Power

Living Our Deeper Song

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

As I look for my role in helping to balance and heal this chaotic world, I understand that those of us who are aware must use our consciousness to change the world. 

To do that, when we speak, we must become deeply aware of the originating source within us so we can become a constant conscious expression of the wholeness of the web of life. 

It begins with our conscious contemplation of the state of the planet and the energy expressed by its inhabitants. We can begin to identify the eruptions on the planet that we personally want to help soothe. This impactful change begins with constant conscious contemplation of what is showing up, what imbalance is making itself known and how it is making itself known. Based on what we find, our calling can begin to move into conscious choices. Everyday choices, little choices, big impactful choices based on this awareness of the state of our planet and the depths of our consciousness. 

Based on this thoughtful, conscious contemplation we redefine our role, our place of impact, our form of service and we begin to move into deep and open-hearted action. 

We study the global consciousness. We try to understand the sources of impact and perhaps even its healing. Perhaps what we identify might actually make for a change in an area that we are focusing on.

But we have to go deeper than that. We have to go to the core consciousness, the all-encompassing consciousness at the center of the continuing evolution of the planet. We are an impactful participant and change is chaotic and sometimes scary. But if we, as Light Bearers, can move into our collective soul consciousness, that is where we will find our next course of action.

What steps do we take to tap into and utilize this all-encompassing spiritual power? It will be individual. We may work with groups. We may do our own personal inner work. We may work with one or two other people. 

We must experiment. We must explore. We must observe the results of our choices and judge its impact on the overarching changes we wish to make.

There are Light Workers everywhere, including you. Notice them. Be inspired by them. Perhaps join them in service. 

What form is your participation in the changing world beginning to take? You are filled with spiritual power. You are an integral part of the web of life. Do you have a thoughtful, impactful, profound gift to offer as we make this intense, organic, change?

Stay open. Listen closely to those soft internal prompts that suggest you change directions even a little. Learn to trust that inner voice. Let it open up new doors of possibility. The new dawn is here and we have deep, impactful work to do.

Conscious contemplation that leads to conscious choices will guide our path and open doors. Listen to the global consciousness to see how it wants you to help create this impactful shift. Listen to your soul consciousness to understand your role in this profound universal change. Come, let’s help heal the world together. 

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I move into contemplation, immerse myself in spiritual power and move into deeper service.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

  • Experiment with ways to listen to your inner voice. It could be shamanic journeys, automatic writing, or a simple knowing. Listen for and respond to those nudges from the universe.
  • Pay attention to the insights and opportunities that show up and give thoughtful consideration to how or what is calling you.
  • Pick one and go exploring. Together we will create positive changes for our planet. 

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Use Your Imagination To Explore Possibilities

It’s like trying on an outfit and looking in the mirror to see how it fits.  That’s one way to use your imagination to explore possibilities.  Imagine different scenarios and see how they feel, see where they lead you, see what new possibilities open up.  Use your imagination to explore your choice and its potential more deeply.

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility For Healing Yourself

Sometimes You Need Help

I sure am glad that Doctor J knows how to do hip replacements because I didn’t even know I needed them. Sometimes you need help to get yourself well. He’s already done a ton of them in his own professional career and I have no clue how it even works. Aren’t we glad that people specialize in things we need to have help with? 

As I settle into the care of this long-term facility, I am eating better than I was eating before and being offered nursing and tests that I didn’t know I needed. And if there’s something I can’t do physically, there’s always someone here to help do it for me. 

I haven’t stepped out of my room to meet many of the residents here but I sure have met a lot of wonderful staff. I do see people going down the hall pushing wheelchairs and even a couple of really big machines that will lift people out of bed who can’t get out otherwise. I have not been to a meal in the dining room but there sure are a lot of people in wheelchairs here. It makes sense. 

I plan to find a way to get stronger. I love physical therapy and I will keep doing that recumbent bike machine forever. After my hip replacement, my plan is to do a lot more walking and be ready to go outside in the spring. And in the meantime, there are a lot of people here that I can ask for help.

Don’t let yourself fall into dependency on other people helping. Keep up the good fight. Keep doing your part. For me it’s much more fun to go to physical therapy and be encouraged to get on the bike and do other things than it was to motivate myself in my live-alone apartment. I think that being surrounded by all these supportive people will help me make this important shift to more activity. 

Even when we have to ask for help, we still have to do the work.

Do The Work

I have just begun a new Qigong class with Deng Ming-Dao at The Shift Network and it is a lovely class. 10 years ago, I could have done everything easily. Today I can’t. I’ve got the top part of me doing some of the work but the leg part is very behind. I have to do the work and there is quite a bit of it to do.  

I’m behind because I didn’t do the work but also because some of my body needs fixing. I just found out I’m going to have both hips replaced in the near future. So it’s not only me and laziness, it is that some body parts need upgrades. But I have to do the work and it makes a difference that I have the supportive people in physical therapy here to come get me and put me on a recumbent bike several times a week and help me work certain other body parts and help me find new ways to get in and out of bed.  So it’s important do the work and it’s also important to find the help you need in order to be able to do the work. Go take a Qigong class or a yoga class or some classes that help you keep moving. Maybe you need some physical therapy to get your body going in the right direction. Keep your body in shape by honoring its needs and taking care of it and helping it heal when it needs help. You can get help to do the work but you do need to do the work. Keep moving. It’s more fun that way. 

===OUTER  WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

Say “Yes” To The Universe

It has taken a great deal of trust on my part to move through this major unfolding change in my life. I felt that I did not have much control over what I saw as timing and details and I had to trust. I had to trust the move was the right thing to do. I had to trust that the space would be the perfect one for me. That it would happen in its perfect time. And it did.

It’s scary to trust. It means you feel you are no longer completely in control. It means you have to be flexible and fluid and respond to what is presented to you by the universe as opportunities, new roads, unexpected detours, pathways, insights and supportive people. 

The universe is very busy giving us opportunities. We have to learn to recognize them. We need to actively explore them. We need to make our choices and we have to learn from them. Where are you going to explore today and what do you think you might learn? Go exploring. Create your own adventure. 

Do The Work

I was not doing the work before I moved. Now I’m getting help with physical therapy and my body is doing some shifting. It’s hard when you’re old to decide to move your body on a regular basis. Sometimes it is not comfortable. We are absolutely, totally, singularly responsible for how our body ages. Our response to our choices and our beliefs creates the pattern of process.

Physical therapy has given me a couple of very simple movements to do and since I get up a lot during the middle of the night, that’s when I’ve chosen to add them to my life. My body is rested and relaxed and flexible and responsive to the exercises. And my posture is improving. What small physical pattern can you create and add to your life that will make a difference in how your body responds to life in general?

Give Your Best Gifts

We each have gifts that we offer the world. What are yours? And are you using them? 

Some of our gifts are more noticeable than others. I can identify gifts like being able to identify the overview and writing about it with clarity for others. But a gift I may not be aware of is my enthusiasm and how contagious it is for others. And my curiosity. 

What gifts do you bring to the world and how are you expressing them? How are they being received? What lives are you touching? How are you changing them? Look closely at the impact your very presence is having on others and know that you are a gift simply by being. Spread the joy – by your very presence! 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

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

Commune With Clouds

I was a young housewife with four children and a husband who were all asleep in the house. It was Sunday and I went out to my backyard and lay on my back in the grass and watched the shape-shifting clouds and felt the heartbeat of the earth beneath my back. I listened to the stillness of my neighborhood on this Sunday morning. And I talked to the clouds.

It was a long time ago but I will never forget that moment of being one with nature.  

Do you take time to connect with nature, to listen to her? To learn from her? Do you simply stop outside and listen to the sounds and feeling of nature? Do you take time to stop and watch the clouds shifting? Or a drop of rain dripping from a leaf? Or simply be present with a rainbow? Do you listen to the wind rattling the branches above your head? How do you take time to be with nature and how often do you do it?

I can sit by my window and look at nature with a turn of my head. But breathing fresh air is a bit more of a project. There is a door to the outside in the physical therapy room next door to me that leads to a deck with chairs and a gently sloping walkway that leads to a garden. So I know where an outside door is in this new space and I will begin by going to open the door for a few moments to enjoy each day. I can also turn and look out my window and play my flute.  In my other apartment I could play to the setting sun but now my window faces the sunrise. I just haven’t figured out how to not disturb anyone and still do that. But I will. For now, I play my Kalimba softly, do very soft drumming on my Celtic drum, and sing to the directions softly to myself. 

Find a way to listen to and connect with nature several times throughout your day. She has many lessons and guidance for us when we listen. 

===GUIDANCE FROM OUR COSMIC COUNSELORS ===

Listen Beyond The Voice Within 

Trust The Unfolding

I journey to the Cosmic Counselors. Teach me to trust the unfolding. 

I am deep in the old growth forest. A soft light shines on the path ahead of me. It is a signal of hope. It is a symbol of guidance. “Keep your eyes open” says a voice. “Look for the guidance. Look for the opportunities. Look for the insights. Listen with your heart. Listen with your intuition,” says the voice. “From those resources choose your path. It is always your choice. Make your choices based on your increasing awareness and contemplation of the possibilities and potential and the calling of your heart. Do the work. Listen. Interpret. Act.  All is well in your world.” 

I am on my bench in my Secret Garden beside the reflecting pool. The Indigo Carillon begins to play. It sends my song through my melody. My harmonies. My voice in the world. We have work to do and we are to get very creative about how we do it. How are you playing your song? What melody are you offering the world? How are you in harmony with what is unfolding in your life? Listen carefully and stay in tune. 

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

Expand Your Role In The Rapidly Evolving Universe

Cherish Your Differences

Each person has an individual gift and we must cherish our differences. The adventurous person shows us new paths today. The curious person opens new avenues of exploration for us. Maintain an eclectic circle of friends who will help you expand in new directions. Cherish the differences you find in your friends.

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

Raise Your Sights And Your Expectations 

Go Exploring Every Day

What kind of an adventurer are you? Do you go exploring? Do you take the narrow path down an unexplored landscape? How daring are you as you move through life, learning from others, constantly curious? We must learn to go exploring well and often. We must knock on unopened doors and step through new thresholds and throw open windows.  

How do you do that? Do you listen to the messages and opportunities that the universe provides you every day? It could be through a new person you meet, it could be an overheard phrase that touches your heart, it could be an unexpected realization of a new possibility. Our life is constantly unfolding but we must pay attention to the many possibilities our paths can take. Where will you go exploring today? Have an adventure! 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Support And Encouragement For Our Unfolding Role In The Future

Identify Your Cause

We only have seven or eight years to reverse the climate destruction we are doing and have a chance to save the planet at all.

You may be an advocate of the land, the ocean, a certain type of plant or animal that may be endangered. You may care about a certain group of people – children or the homeless or a certain ethnicity.

You may care more about one area of distress than another. I give money to organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and the National Wildlife Federation. But you may give to programs to help educate certain groups. Choose a cause that calls to you. Turn and step into service of that cause. It may be a donation or active participation or any other way you find that you can contribute.

Finding the work that you wish to do to help others is a fair, very powerful expansion of your awareness and your feelings and your place of service. Find what calls to you and get to work. Identify your cause and support it. 

=== DEEPER SONG PHILOSOPHIES ===

The winds of grace are always blowing, but we must raise our sails.   Sri Ramakrishna

If you don’t raise your sails, you will not ever go anywhere. If you don’t row your boat in the middle of a river, it will not move forward. We have work to do to expand our life experience and nourishing food to produce. What new project of self enhancement will you undertake?

===INTENTION BLESSING===

May we hear and heed the call of the Divine Feminine. 
May we expand our hearts and our expectations.
May we walk the Path of Light with a sure foot. 
May we keep our gaze on the summit.
May we take this journey with a full heart. 
I entwine my light with yours as we move forward to guide the way.

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

Expanding Awareness

Journey to Our Ancestors to Expand Our Consciousness

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

===REFLECTIONS===

On Turning 90

I was born November 19, 1932. It was shortly after the Great Depression and there were not many of us born then. My father was a civil engineer and had a good job so they felt secure enough to begin their family.

90 years is a really long time. It has been a good life, a fulfilling life, and I have vigorously marched on my own personal path. I have honored the gifts that I have been given and used them in creative ways. I continue to deepen my spiritual awareness and broaden my spiritual path. And I am still in service in the world. And that is probably the most important thing I have going for me right now.

How are you staying relevant in your life? Are you still finding ways to contribute to others, to the world? Are you still learning? Are you still exploring?

This community of seniors has various levels of continued engagement. I’m not sure there is still a desire to contribute to the world let alone a way to do it.

I’m very clear that my place of service is to this very kind staff who is deeply in service to seniors who really need a lot of help. 

How do you find purpose in your life as you get really old? Sometimes what you have to offer is positive presence, your cheerful personality and your inquisitive mind.

I am grateful that I can still do my newsletter. It keeps me inquisitive and makes me feel like I’m contributing. As my eyes continue to change. I’m not sure how that’s going to unfold but I’m trusting that it will. 

I still love to learn. I just started my sixth Qigong class. There are other things that I want to explore. I want to deepen my spiritual practice but since I have a suite-mate, its form is still evolving.

When it comes time for your birthday, take some time to see how you have contributed to our world. Examine your spiritual practice and see how it needs to be changed. Decide what you want to learn next and make those selections and get started. What new aspect will you add to your life? I’m getting more and more ideas for what I want to do about that. And I’ve only been here two weeks. My place of service is definitely about encouraging this staff.

Each year, perhaps even several times a year, pause to see how you’re doing. See what lives you are changing and see how are you connecting via new forms of service. 

Explore a bit and make new choices. Take a new path and see where it leads you. You are never too old to go exploring.

===CARA’S CORNER===

Forge A New Path

My eyesight is getting trickier. It is dry macular degeneration and it’s scaring me because I love doing this newsletter. I have proofing from my friend Noralee in Canada. Even though I dictate, it’s even trickier to write using a 37-point san serif font.

I had given away my microphone thinking I would never do the podcast again, but it has gone over to my daughter’s house so I’m getting it back. It might be easier for me to record a message and then have someone help to edit it than to keep re-writing these pieces. I’ll let it evolve and stay flexible. I just need to keep adjusting and perhaps rethink some of my choices. All is working out well in my world. 

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

FLEXIBILITY

There are many paths to choose from as I undertake this next phase of my journey. Short steps. Long steps. Skipping steps. Contemplative steps.

There are many paths to choose from as I undertake this next phase of my journey. Short steps. Long steps. Skipping steps. Contemplative steps. I need to look around me for new ways of doing the work I love and refilling my role in this next stage of my life. 

There are many paths to explore as I undertake this next phase of my journey. Short steps. Long steps. Skipping steps. Contemplative steps. I need to look around me for new ways of doing the work I love and refilling my role in this next stage of my life. The answer will appear. The universe will provide. I trust the process and let it unfold.

– Cara Lumen, November 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  

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

Filed Under: Transformational Community

Are You Driving Your Life Or Are You Just Along For The Ride?

November 13, 2022 By Cara Lumen

Are You Driving Your Life Or Are You Just Along For The Ride?

Living Our Deeper Song

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

Who’s in charge of your life? Are you the one making the decisions and taking the actions that are forming the framework that impacts your life? Or are you just along for the ride, letting things show up and then making your choices and letting it take you wherever it does?

We are in charge here. Everything that happens to us is of our own making – either because of what we believe is possible or what we believe we deserve. How our life unfolds depends on what choices we make and what actions we take. How proactive are you in creating your own life?

Even as circumstances seemed to be moving me in the direction of long-term care, I still had many, many choices to make about my attitude toward going, the choices I made about what I created in my new environment, what I wanted to experience and how I internally approached this major change in my life. Those beliefs, and expectations and choices are driving my decisions and my expectations.

You may think that you are stuck in a situation. You’re not, it’s simply where you find yourself and from where you get to move forward. If you don’t like where you are, turn the wheel, change directions, go faster or slower or get off the bus.

Your mental attitude towards change is cornerstone to how change evolves. If you are excited and willing to learn and see it as an adventure, it will be fun and fruitful. If you see it as a dead end, that’s exactly what it will be. Change your perspective, change your life experience.

As we age, our choices seem less broad. Notice I did not say limited. When we get creative, we can find new ways of doing some version of everything. And anything.

I do the Shaking Qigong movements seated in my chair because I don’t stand up very well. I do it several times a day and it is effective. We get to modify how we do certain things. But we still do them.

Approach your circumstances from a different angle. As my dry macular degeneration continues, it was a game changer for me to have a 21-inch monitor so I can work in large type. Sometimes we simply need to change the mechanics of how we do something. 

Change the situation. You may have outgrown a friend or that friend may take a different path and you choose to go forward. You may find new friends that inspire and motivate you to explore a new path.

Be open to change. Go exploring. Make new choices. Drive your life in the direction you want to go. Do not just go along for the ride. Be creative, adapt, and get busy designing your new life.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I take charge of my life journey and make choices that take me in the direction I want to go 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Look carefully to see where you are. Simply allowing things to happen instead of making choices to go in a direction you want to go.
  • Go exploring.
  • Guide your own path. 
  • Make your own choices.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Value Your Own Wisdom

Over the years we accumulate a wisdom that helps us make informed decisions.  Wisdom is required to make our daily choices. It accumulates with time and experience.  Pay attention to the suggestions the universe offers and see what ideas and plans and actions it suggests. Every experience adds to the depths of our wisdom and adds insights and guidance for our journey. 

Learn to recognize the voice and let it help guide your choices.

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Create Your Own Safe Haven

I have a suite mate here in Evergreen Long Term Care because we are both being covered by Medicare. Her television tastes run to old game shows and Turner classics and pawn shows. I watch a lot of news and now that my bluetooth headphones are hooked up to my computer, I’m on Pandora and will get on Spotify for music and podcasts.  I haven’t tried audiobooks yet as I’m a visual learner. I have some learning and adjusting to do. Be patient with yourself as you continue to change and adapt.  

===OUTER  WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

Step Back And Observe

The more complicated something is, the harder it is to get distance on the evolution and thrust. The more complex the project, the greater the need to step back and observe. Take a deep breath, quiet your busy mind. Perhaps even go into nature to center yourself and bring your awareness to the natural unfolding that expresses itself in so many forms. When we return to considering our circumstances, we do it slowly, observing the overall picture more than the details, to see that we’re headed in the right direction. Then we adjust, we make corrections, we drop some things and expand others until our next step forward is clear and we are getting results we are looking for. The bigger the project, the more often you should step back and observe. If you are to gain perspective, you see the overview and the progress. See if you are still going in the direction you choose or if an entirely new choice has appeared.

Get The Help You Need

It is with great relief that I am surrounded by Health Care Professionals who are helping to find out what’s going on with my body and creating personalized plans to help me get better. Do not put off asking for the help you need, whether it’s a medical understanding or the positive shift you need to make sure you take charge of your belief system and find the professionals that work with your needs. 

How To Nurture Your Creative Energy?

My suite mate here at Evergreen was a potter. She loved to create, but since that art form is no longer available to her, she needs to find a substitute. How do you downsize creativity and keep it relevant? 

I am using drawing pencils to sketch my shamanic journeys. That helps me remember them when I review the drawings.

I used to play the piano. I used to sing in coral groups. Today I have my native flutes, my Celtic drum and kalimba thumb piano. How do you nurture your creative energy and use your imagination? Keep that creativity going.

How You Fill Your Day

I have an opportunity to re-examine how I fill my days.  Over at Ridgeview I know I was watching too much news, playing too much Spider Solitaire and watching reruns of Murder She Wrote until I could mouth the dialogue. These first two weeks at Evergreen have been filled with new faces and awesome help. Lots of help. Despite having the flow of professionals come in to cheer me on as a new member of the community, who listen and care about my well-being, I am once again faced with long days that I can fill as I choose. It is a clean slate on which I could write anything. Twice I have fallen asleep in my chair. I have yet to take a nap. And daylight savings mixed me up even more. 

A new environment and new opportunities to be explored and some choices to be made. 

How do you choose to fill a new situation? What criteria do you use? What preferences do you discard? 

I will begin with my objectives. 

My body: I’m looking out at a garden with paved walks and handrails, a gazebo and apparently places to grow things in the summertime. So even going to the door every day to breathe in the fresh air would be an activity of sorts. Not a particularly ambitious one but a distance to cover and a goal to achieve. Choose a goal that you will achieve and repeat it. 

I need to have a variety of objectives. Some physical, some mental, and of course my spiritual practice. 

Although I already spend a lot of time at the computer, I want to add a category called mental stimulation. It’s about learning. It will be a podcast. I have to figure out audiobooks. None of that is about moving my body.

This is an opportunity to change my pattern, to identify what no longer serves me. I’m going to begin by adding things to replace some of my less than stellar choices on how to use my time.  

Isn’t it interesting how we can maintain not particularly productive cycles. And sometimes we don’t even notice it.  

What makes you feel productive? What feeds your mind and what stimulates your soul path? Are you just filling your time or are you using your time wisely?

I might actually create a soft schedule to make certain that I alternate mental stimulation and physical stimulation. I have no trouble with the first one and am really pokey about the second level. And I like to be spontaneous.

How are you failing to meet your needs? It’s not that you need a schedule to follow but you could create a schedule of opportunity in which certain activities could be placed.

I have an 18-minute Qigong video from Robert Peng that I would like to learn. I’m starting a new class with Deng Ming-Dao that will give me work to do to expand my Qigong practice.  

Begin by choosing an area you want to establish. I wish I would do more Transcendental Meditation. Where do I put that? I want to expand my Qigong practice. Where do I want to put that in my day? Perhaps identify general times in your day to put one type of activity in order to build your daily practice for both your spiritual life and your physical well-being. First, see which part of your day you want to change and then begin to establish it in the vicinity of a general timeline.

7:30 – daily spiritual practice including Qigong 

8 Breakfast

8:30 -10 Open email, Write on newsletter

10-11 learn something. Listen to a podcast.

11 – News

12 Lunch

Keep it fluid. I’m still having a lot of interruptions so I have to be flexible with when I do things. Experiment and find a pattern you can maintain.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

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

Change Your Clock

In the US we changed our clocks recently to get rid of daylight savings time and return to regular time. That made me pause to think in what ways I needed to change my own clock, my own sense of timing, and make adjustments for the winter season. The days are gradually growing shorter which means I may wake up in the dark and eat my supper in the dark. The changing seasons is a good time to reflect on how you’re doing, what you are doing, and when you are doing it. It’s a good time to make changes. To add or subtract to your spiritual practice and your physical practice. 

Do you have a goal? Since I am in a new environment my goal is to take advantage of all the physical help and establish a routine of healing. Physical therapy is helping a lot. But I’m also eating better. And the things that are hard for me to do are now being done for me. There will come a time when I will not have quite so many people coming to introduce themselves to me and tell me what their area of expertise is for my well-being.

I get to look at how I spend my time. The choices I make. The choices I don’t make. I am in the process of establishing a new rhythm that impacts when I get up (early) when I eat (on schedule), and how I spend my time (on the computer). I have a lot of new patterns to develop and establish. Because there are so many people to help me do everything, I have to create my own physical routine to keep me moving along. 

How are you adapting to the change in seasons? What new plans do you have? What do you want to explore? It’s time to change your clock and create the patterns you want to establish in your life. 

Do Your Thing

I’ve been here 10 days and I have not yet played my flute for my spiritual practice. Part of it is that with arthritis in my fingers, sometimes I don’t play very well. And the door to the hallway is always open and this is the conservative Midwest. So an old woman playing a native flute is an anomaly.

I will do it. Because it’s important to me but this is a conservative population and I have already gone very, very far afield simply because of my eclectic being-ness. I will continue being me, but I may break it to them gently.

Do you simply let the chips fall where they may? It’s important to fully express yourself in all areas of your life.

===THE CHARGING STATION ===

Working As Healers

I knew I was to have a new role before I moved but I am surprised at what it is. Evergreen is full of social workers who are deeply in service. I know my role is to help them expand their holistic inquiry if it calls to them. I am a resource and an encourager.

I had been here about a week when I realized that my new role is about supporting these incredibly kind spiritual people who are in deep service. I decided to make my space a charging station so whoever comes in receives positive, supportive, loving energy. And I will tell you there’s a huge flow of people in and out of this room.  And all of them are motivated by a huge desire to be in service.

On Zoom I have gathered together a group of dear friends. I call us The Rainbow Weavers. We meet monthly on Zoom. This month I have asked for their help in creating my Holistic Charging Station.  I still have quite a few crystals left but I have chosen a Himalayan Salt Lamp with a forest scene that sits on my dresser and it’s on all the time. There are chunks of orange salt rocks surrounding the light and at our next meeting we are going to take the rocks from the Himalayan Salt Lamp and imbue each of them with a quality that will serve those who are in deep service here. That way the lamp is always sitting on the dresser putting out loving, supportive energy to whomever comes by. Based on what we discover I will share some ideas on how you can create a charging station for yourself or your family in your home or your office.

Bo gave me a shower today. He put me in a wheelchair to take me to the shower room and help me take a shower. It turns out he is one of my cornerstone people. He asked me about my flutes and wanted to know more about my holistic work. He will share that with like-minded people and the connectedness will expand. Don’t you love it when the universe opens the door so wide you have no choice but to skip merrily through. I love it. I have had several of the people who work here tell me they are glad I’m here. I am too. 

===GUIDANCE FROM OUR COSMIC COUNSELORS ===

Listen Beyond the Voice Within 

My Journey To The Cosmic Counselors: Talk to me about this new role that is opening up.

Once again I am in my Secret Garden but this time, I have crossed the reflecting pool and I’m sitting in the center of the circle surrounded by the three Cosmic Counselors that have shown themselves to me thus far. 

You are moving into a very deep place of service. When people focus on helping others, the entire dynamic changes. Create your Charging Station and listen to see how you can teach others to do that. You will touch many lives as you continue to expand in your own life and others will see it. And want to emanate it. There are many forms of service and teaching is one of them. Be a light. Be a teaching light. Show others the open path.

I sit on the bench on the other side of the reflecting pool and The Director is there. “A teacher of light ,” I say. “Yes,” he says, “a teacher of light.” 

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

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Helping Professions

The majority of people in this long-term care facility are social workers. They are very kind, caring people. One young man said he was in the field because his mother was a social worker and he had gone to work with her at times. 

As a social worker you can pick the population with whom you want to work. It could be a particular group or a particular type of problem. The jobs here range from nursing to dietitian to cook, to caregivers for us on many levels, to people doing housekeeping and maintaining the building, and the two girls who do laundry for the entire complex. Noble indeed. And probably more I don’t even know. The shifts are long but the people sure are kind.

Patricia is my life coach. She is my go-to person to answer questions and coordinate everything I do and the care I receive. The physical therapy room has practitioners of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.  My favorite is the recumbent bike –  it recently told me her name is Shirley. This week Sarah my PT person watched me get in and out of bed.  The bed is an agile contortionist, the head and foot of the bed go up and down separately with the push of a button and I use that feature as leverage for getting in and out of the bed.  It’s just taken me some time to figure it out but I have a good system now.

There is a standing menu and a daily menu and I can have a snack when I want. The emphasis is that this is our home. People here bring our food, make our beds, and help with anything physical we need. All supplies are provided. We can go to a dining room or eat in our rooms. My life coach who is responsible for overseeing my cara00 also labeled every piece of clothing I brought in because the laundry is done in a central location so without a name tag, they can’t return it to you.

These are very kind, caring people and of course have chosen a profession of caring for others. I am surrounded by deeply dedicated, supportive people in deep service. It is a good place to be. 

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

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations 

How Do You Know When You Need A Major Change?

Change comes in all sizes. Sometimes a small change makes a big difference. And sometimes a big change is difficult to do. How do you put change in perspective?

I kept getting nudges where I was living. The first was that I could no longer do the walk back-and-forth to do my own laundry. It was hard to get things off the floor. Then it was hard to move the trash out on the walker. Things just got harder and harder as I refused to take action because of them. 

It can be a gradual and subtle diminishing of power when you continue to make small compromises one on top of the other.  And if you know you have to downsize, that’s a whole challenge within itself.

Play attention to the nudges the universe gives you and begin to look at your options for change.  They may open new doors. Don’t be afraid of big change. Consider it an adventure as well as an opportunity. 

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

How to Open Space for Change

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

===CARA’S CORNER===

Our Future

I wrote this knowing that the balance of power in the Senate and House have not yet been decided after the US election. It turns out that many people did understand how much is still at stake in this country. Women in particular made themselves heard. It seems like the women and some inclusive men are on one side and a big portion of old men are on the other. That is the Divine Feminine continuing to unfold and gain strength and power in the world. 

How and when will we regain our awareness of our oneness? Is it a generational thing? Why cannot we each take action for the highest good of all? Why are we fighting to have the rules support only our own way of thinking? We must learn how to live in an inclusive and compassionate way. 

So much of this seems wrapped up in the concept of self, not the whole, the collective well-being.  There is no honoring of different viewpoints to see them as valuable and informative, and give them space to exist. Our future is in our hands and we must make our choices wisely and embrace the wholeness of who we are – One Energy.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Wholeness

I am a ripple in the river of life. I am the curve of the rainbow. I am the song of a bird. I am the laughter of a child. I am wholeness.

I am a ripple in the river of life. I am the curve of the rainbow. I am the song of a bird. I am the laughter of a child. I am wholeness. I must live with an ever-present awareness of my interconnectedness with all things and always choose for the greater good of all.

I am a ripple in the river of life. I am the curve of the rainbow. I am the song of a bird. I am the laughter of a child. I am wholeness. I must live with an ever-present awareness of my interconnectedness with all things and always choose for the greater good of all. We are all participants in the Web of Life and must think accordingly. We are One.

– Cara Lumen, November 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  

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

Filed Under: Future, Self Awareness

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 190
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Do not follow where the path may lead, go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Join the Deeper Song Community

Recent Posts

  • What Makes A Friend A Friend? 
  • The Unfolding Of A New Path
  • Expand Your Vision
  • Our Future Collective Vision
  • How Has Your Path Widened With Opportunity?

Let’s Connect

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Made with by Freshly Baked Brand