
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===
Listen to my
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
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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.
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